A newly installed freezer in downtown Fort Frances will make a significant difference for those in need going forward.
The Salvation Army headquarters in downtown Fort Frances recently celebrated the official ribbon-cutting for a brand new walk-in freezer that has been installed in the basement of their Scott Street location. The freezer will allow the Fort Frances branch of the Salvation Army to take better advantage of a food program it has long participated in, which will in turn allow it to better support those who turn to them for food support in their time of need.
Arthur Heathcote, the local Salvation Army Captain, noted that they are part of a program that regularly receives food to support their food bank, and in the past he has had to turn away full pallets of frozen and perishable food items owing to the fact they had no room for them. Now, thanks to government funding, that is no longer an issue.
“Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada provided funds through the Local Food Infrastructure Fund to the amount of $34,000 so that we could build a walk-in freezer downstairs for the food bank clients and for the community,” Heathcote said.
“We get a tremendous amount of donated food that we can either accept or not accept and in the past we’ve had to decline food because of lack of space. And we’re not talking small amounts, it’s by the pallet-full.”
The new freezer that has gone into the basement measures 12′ by 9′ by 7′, providing the Salvation Army with 756 cubic feet of cold-temperature storage space.
According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Local Food Infrastructure Fund is aimed at “community-based, not-for-profit organizations with a mission to reduce food insecurity by establishing and strengthening their local food systems” primarily by supporting infrastructure needs. The new freezer drastically increases the amount of food that the Salvation Army can accept, which typically comes to them from Feed Ontario, a member of Food Banks Canada. The Feed Ontario program sends pallets of both perishable and non-perishable food to partners throughout the province, which then go on to support those in need of food assistance within those regions.
“Last year we were able to accept about 3,400 pounds of food through pallet donations,” Heathcote said.
“Because of the capacity of being able to store stuff now, that’s increased our capacity to 12,000 pounds of food per year, which means when a client comes in for Food Bank, prior to this they were getting two pounds of perishable food for a family of two. Now they’re going to get eight pounds of perishable food, along with the forty pounds of non-perishable food that they’ve got in the past. It’s almost quadrupled our ability to serve the needs of the community, on top of which we’ve now got the ability to accept stuff and outsource surplus food as well.”
Heathcote noted that because the Salvation Army has relationships with other local agencies who also do their part to combat food insecurity and assist those who may need food bank services, such as the United Native Friendship Centre, the Salvation Army can now act as a distributor for those newly accepted perishable food items, passing along to partners what they can’t accept or need to get out of their freezer due to storage time limits.
“So you know, we’re able to maybe keep half the pallet and then we distribute the rest throughout the community through other agencies here that help the same people that we do as well,” he said.
“It’s going to make a huge difference as far as being able to maintain the amount of food, and increasing the amount of food, that we’ve been able to provide to our clients. Basically what happens is you take a look at what you’ve got on the shelves, and if the shelves are getting sparse that means we have to go down to maybe 20 pounds of food per visit, whereas if we’re getting lots of donations, if we have lots of product to move, that means we can increase the amount of average weight that you get per visit.”
In addition to the new freezer upping the ante on what the Salvation Army will be able to take in for their food bank program going forward, Heathcote noted the organization also saw plenty of support during the Christmas season, helping to ensure their hamper program was a success and that their food bank shelves are well stocked for the months that follow the holidays.
