Shelter’s food bank seeks donations ahead of reopening

Main Street Project’s food bank and essentials market is seeking donations as it prepares to reopen after fire forced it to close in January.

The front-line resource had its produce and inventory destroyed by smoke as a result of the Jan. 14 fire that levelled the Manwin Hotel next door on Main Street, said Kyla Walton, MSP’s volunteer services manager.

“We lost a small convenience store’s worth of food,” she said.

The food bank will reopen Thursday and Walton said it’s critical to have the place ready to meet demand by refilling inventory.

“We want to make sure that the person at the back of the line gets the same amount as the person at the front of the line,” she said.

Walton called the need for donations urgent, as the space supports 150 to 180 families each week, and serves as food storage for MSP’s other nutrition programs.

She said rising grocery prices are pushing demand higher, but the effect the food bank has on its users is obvious.

“You see a huge connection between the volunteers and the community that we serve,” she said.

“When people find exactly what they need — or if they ask for something and we’re able to provide it — you see a sense of relief when people don’t have food scarcity anymore. Their day is a little better.”

MSP said its food and nutrition services provide more than 1,650 meals a day with the food bank serving as the organization’s “central food hub.”

Walton stressed the service gives people choice and a dignified experience.

Members of the public are asked to take donations of canned food, pasta, cereal, rice, peanut butter, baby formula and hygiene products to 661 Main St. between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday to Friday.

“We need everything that you would find in your own pantry,” she said.

Financial donations are also welcome, as is the purchase of items from MSP’s Amazon wish list, in which items will be shipped directly to the shelter.

morgan.modjeski@freepress.mb.ca