Donations to the Aurora Food Pantry are at an “all-time low,” as demand surges for the food bank’s services.
Empty shelves stand throughout the food bank’s warehouse on Industrial Parkway in Aurora. Costco-like tall shelves that used to be stocked full of items like pasta and beans now hold empty crates.
The food pantry usually purchases staples like milk, eggs and cheese, as well as some produce like vegetables and potatoes, but are also now having to buy non-perishable items that use to be donated reliably.
“A few years ago, we would put lists out of items that we didn't need because we would receive a bulk of peanut butter or pasta,” said Sandra Seepaul, executive director of the Aurora Food Pantry. “When people ask me that now, my response is that, ‘We need everything.’”
The organization is having to dip into its reserve funds, with Seepaul estimating the food bank could last for another year or two, if donations and demand do not change.
“We’ll be in trouble for sure,” she said.
Donations dropping comes at a time of spiking demand. Seepaul said numbers started to rise in July last year, with more than 1,200 people a month using the food bank’s services since Christmas.
That figure has doubled from this time two years ago, when there were about 600 people a month using the food bank in April 2022.
“We need our donations to continue to go up or at least to remain constant, otherwise we will run out of monetary donations, it’s going to happen eventually if things don’t improve,” she said.
Seepaul said the pantry has a great base of volunteers, but they have had to turn away new volunteers because there is not enough food to sort.
“We just do the best we can, we try to find partnerships that work, resources that will continue to allow us to provide for our clients. But it’s hard to be optimistic about things.
“At the ground level, why people are using food banks — if that doesn’t change, how can we expect people to stop using us?”
Seepaul acknowledged that food banks are a “Band-Aid solution,” adding she was not optimistic the situation would improve unless more was done to tackle the root causes of food insecurity.
“There is the argument food banks shouldn’t exist, and that if the food banks didn’t exist that the government would then be forced to make policy changes, so that people could afford to buy food,” she said. “It’s a Catch-22 because it’s true, but what do you do in the meantime?”
Seepaul said while there are government grants that exist for things like equipment (the food pantry recently bought new freezers with a grant), there’s no funding for buying food.
“Would it be nice if they gave us money? It would be nice if somebody, some level of government helped us with purchasing food.”
The Aurora Food Pantry is located at 350 Industrial Parkway South.
Financial donations can be made online, and more information about arranging a food drive or what to donate can be found here.
Donation drop-off hours are Tuesday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursday 1 to 7:30 p.m., and Saturday 8 a.m. to noon. After-hours donations can be made at Central York Fire Station 4-3 at 220 Edward St.
Client service hours are Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 11:20 a.m., Thursday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and Saturday from 8 to 11:30 a.m. Appointments can be booked online.
