The Saskatoon Food Bank and Learning Centre is seeing record demand, with August marking the busiest month in the organization’s history. About 26,000 people accessed the food bank in August. It comes as the organization continues to see longer lineups and growing demand for food. “We’ve seen that increase over the last five years. Very slowly creeping up to that number was a bit of a surprise for us all to see us over that number,” Laurie O’Connor, executive director of the Saskatoon Food Bank and Learning Centre said. O’Connor says the food bank hopes the August number is an anomaly, but history has shown that once a new high is reached, demand has tended to continue rising. The organization says, no matter how many people show up, they find a way to get them hampers. “We do not turn folks away. We’re planning for 400 to 600 hampers every day, ensuring we have enough food in the building. If donations aren’t meeting the demand, then we’re purchasing food,” O’Connor says. The increased demand comes as the food bank works towards settling in a new home. Construction is currently underway on a new food bank and learning centre on Avenue P, a purpose-built facility that will bring the organization’s operations together under one roof. The Dakota Dunes Community Development Corporation is contributing $200,000 to the project through the Nutrien Plant Possibility Capital Campaign. “This investment is going to that building to really support the work that’s going on,” STC Tribal Chief Mark Arcand, chair of the Dakota Dunes Community Development Corporation, said. Arcand is also encouraging other organizations and companies to support the project. “We’re going to lead by example by doing that. What other First Nations organizations are out there? What other Metis organizations, what other non-Indigenous organizations? There’s so many organizations and companies that can do better, and we have to do better,” he says. Of the hundreds of hampers handed out at the Food Bank daily, children are also becoming a more common demographic among those accessing its services. Crews are currently working to have the exterior walls on the new building finished by the end of October so focus can move to the inside. Final completion of the new Food Bank and Learning Centre is expected in September 2027.
