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The past year has proved to be a challenging one for food banks, including the Grand Falls Regional Food Bank.

"We were confronted by many challenges as we strived to advance in our mission to feed the hungry people, eliminate chronic hunger and alleviate poverty in our community," stated Glenn Rioux, President of the Regional Food Bank. "The demands on our organization often exceed our resources and occasionally try to outpace our dedicated staff and volunteers," he added.

"We made two requests to try and obtain more funds from the government and unfortunately we were turned down due to a lack of funds in its budget. Our community has been extremely generous to us year after year but even so, it's not enough to purchase the four groups of food that are essential to make a complete meal," Rioux said.

In 2007, the Regional Food Bank helped 6,091 families and individuals. The facility saw an increase of 83 new clients throughout the whole year. Of the total number of clients, 1,374 were between the ages of 0 to 12 (22%), 2,227 were between the ages of 13 to 18 (37%) and 2,490 (41%) were adults.

"We helped 87 families and individuals during the holidays while staying in contact with the Richelieu Club and surrounding food banks to prevent duplication from clients. We were compelled to refuse 99 families and individuals due to a lack of food and financial assistance," he stated.

"Throughout the past year, many stores, companies and individuals continuously helped us in many ways."

During 2007, the Regional Food Bank gave families and inviduals food for a total value of approximately $1,150,400.

"We also bought an amount of food worth approximately $16,241.61 and contributions from churches in our area and other fundraisers came to about $1,134,152.39."

"With the high cost of living, it is apparent that poverty continues to grow year after year," Rioux stated. "We get very little from the provincial government. We get $41,000 a year to administrate our food bank and soup kitchen. After paying the secretary's salary and other expenses, not much is left. The community kitchen doesn't work as well as we thought it would because of a lack of money. Many potential clients are too shy to come or they simply prefer getting a box and cooking at home. Again this year, many people from out of town used the community kitchen to eat a proper meal before heading to their next destination. Due to a small amount of money, we can't hire a part-time cook. We have to depend on ourselves or try to find a volunteer to prepare a quick meal. In 2007, we served 315 meals. Of these, 133 were adults, 71 were teenagers (13 to 18) and 111 were children under the age of 12."

"The government is asking us to sign a contract and they are only financing us 38 per cent of our budget. Please be assured that even if we did sign a proposed contract, that the building will stay protected in the agreement. Many years ago, our Board of Directors passed a motion that if we were to close our doors, the building would go back to the community," he said.

"Again this year, we were blessed to have had the support of our 78 wonderful volunteers. They have given us a total 5,248 hours worth of volunteer work throughout the year. If we calculate these hours at minimum wage, their volunteer work would amount to $39,360. We would not survive without their helping hands."

"We need every bit of help to make sure we stay open. Many families and individuals are counting on us to provide a helping hand. We need to work together to make a difference," Rioux stated.