The Pantry is getting rescued food into the hands of more people in our community
A new program aimed at tackling food insecurity in the Winkler area is having a big impact on local families, but they could use a few more dedicated volunteers to keep things running smoothly.
In February, The Pantry, which is run under the umbrella of the Winkler and District Food Cupboard in its space in the Central Station Community Centre on Main St., started up an open shelf system twice a week where everyone is welcome to stop in and supplement their food supplies.
Unlike the weekly food cupboard program, which runs on Wednesdays and asks recipients to come only every other week, The Pantry does not require a referral or registration. Anybody is invited to stop by on Mondays from 5-6:30 p.m. or Fridays from 3-5 p.m. to pick up a selection of the food available that week at no charge.
The shelves at The Pantry are wholly stocked with items from the Winkler Food Rescue program (all monetary donations and food drives organized on behalf of the Winkler Food Cupboard still go specifically to that program; The Pantry is rescued food only).
All of Winkler’s major grocery stores participate in the rescue program, donating products that have been overstocked, discontinued, or are nearing their best-buy dates but are still perfectly edible.
This food is put to good use by several schools for their breakfast programs, Central Station for the hot breakfasts and lunches it offers, the Genesis House women’s shelter to feed the women and children in their care, and the food cupboard to supplement the staple grocery products it purchases for its clients.
But the sheer amount of rescued items weekly far exceeds those needs, so The Pantry was launched to ensure no one in our community needs to worry about going hungry when there’s so much available food around.
“We had so much food rescued that it felt like it could go to even more people,” says Phyllis Kroeker, a volunteer with the food rescue team and The Pantry. “The hope was to open it up more to the community, and we really do feel we’ve accomplished that.”
The Pantry sees representatives from between 85-110 households stop in to pick up groceries each week.
“It’s for anyone in the community, anyone who is open to getting rescued food,” stresses Kroeker, noting the service area is roughly defined as being the Southern Health-Santé Sud regional health authority catchment. “Our hope would be for it to reach people struggling with food insecurity, but we don’t ask questions … we want to see good food going into bellies instead of out to the landfill.”
By keeping the program broadly accessible, volunteers hope that people who might hesitate to ask for help from the food cupboard, for example, even if they could use it, will feel comfortable coming to “shop” at The Pantry.
Volunteer Carla Hamm says they do see some overlap between families who regularly use both food programs.
“There’s some familiar faces for sure, but there’s a lot that aren’t,” she says.
“The goal is to offer a dignified kind of shopping experience,” Hamm continues. “They come in here and they can choose from whatever we have that day. It’s always different, but they can pick their own stuff.”
The item limits per household depend greatly on what kind of goods they have on the shelves—sometimes it’s 10 items, other weeks it might be 15.
“Ten adds up pretty quickly, so we don’t know if we’ve figured out the formula yet, but we’re trying it out,” Kroeker says. “It’s meant to be a supplement [to regular grocery shopping or the food cupboard hampers families receive].”
People are often invited to take as many fruits and vegetables as they can reasonably use, while dairy and meat products are often restricted to one or two per household to ensure there’s enough for everyone.
“Our hope is that if anybody is experiencing hunger and they don’t have enough to get by, just come,” Hamm says. “We want to see everybody fed and nourished. If you need food, you qualify.”
“It’s about moving food into people’s homes. It’s nothing more than that,” Kroeker says. “We all need food to eat and we’ve got excess here and we’re sharing it.”
Many people start lining up hours before the doors open, though Kroeker stresses that isn’t necessary—there’s plenty of food to be had, and more in the back to restock the shelves if they should start to empty.
“I would say every 15 minutes or so we’re bringing out more,” she says. “All the good stuff doesn’t go out at [the start] … we’re trying to keep it equal throughout the time that we’re open.”
They’re still working out some of the kinks in the program. Ideally, rather than having people line up outside, they’d like to figure out a way to stagger people’s arrival or perhaps even set up a comfortable waiting room space at the community centre where shoppers could relax and chat. For that, though, they need more volunteers.
Right now a dedicated group of volunteers set up The Pantry each Friday afternoon, taking it all back down Monday evening so that the food cupboard program can fill the space a few days later.
“After Monday we pack everything away and make it so it’s ready for them on Wednesday,” Hamm says. “It’s a lot of work.
“We’re slowly acquiring more and more volunteers, but we’re open to more,” she says, noting that if they could get a couple of teams going it would lessen the burden on any one group.
If you’d like to get involved, stop by or give Central Station Community Centre a call (204-325-0257) and they will put you in touch with The Pantry team.
“I love this initiative”
During a recent session at The Pantry, a few of the shoppers shared what the program has meant for them and their families.
Floyd Robles came to the area from the Philippines nearly a year ago. He heard about The Pantry through Central Station and has become a regular there in recent months.
Robles’ wife is still back home; he’s trying to save as much as he can to bring her to Canada.
“Since the pandemic, it’s hit hard, we’re still trying to cope, to get back on our feet,” he says, noting his company has also felt the financial sting of recent tariffs by the U.S.
The Pantry has been a godsend, Robles shares.
“This has been very helpful,” he says. “I always recommend [it] to the Filipino community here because it has helped us so much.”
Soukaini Rochdi moved to Winkler from Morocco with her husband and two daughters last summer. He works at a local fast food restaurant and she has a part-time job in retail.
They’ve come to love their adopted city.
“I feel like we live in a big family here,” Rochdi says. “Everyone wants to help everyone. This is what I love in this city.”
Making ends meet has been a challenge for the family as they deal with skyrocketing grocery costs and high rental rates. When all is said and done, she has just a few hundred dollar to spend on groceries, Rochdi shares, so she needs to stretch that as much as possible.
“So this is why I come in here all the time,” she says, noting the money they save on food is money they can save for the future or put towards the other costs that come with raising two young children. “They help me so much just to feed my family. I love this initiative.”
The fact that it’s rescued food bothers Rochdi not in the slightest.
“Even if I can use [produce] for just one or two days, it’s so helpful and useful,” she says, noting sometimes when there’s been an excess in the produce section on a given week she’s taken a bit more to pass along to her neighbours or friends to ensure it’s put to good use. “Why throw it out?”
One day, Rochdi hopes to thank The Pantry and the community of donors and volunteers that make this program possible.
“In the future, if I found a good job and I can feed my family, I would not need to come back [to shop], but I will come back here just to give a donation for other people.”
