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3 · Wednesday, March 24, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com Fareshare driving to stock up at Easter By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF H e's a mechanical engineer who was working as a machine operator and was laid off. His wife is a doctor who is serving food at a seniors' home and cleans washrooms by night. Another man is a web designer with not-so-steady contract work. All of them have kids. All of them are struggling financially. All of them are waiting amidst the hustle and bustle of the Fareshare Food Bank on Speers Road Monday morning. Joan (not her real name) smiles affably and agrees to speak with The Oakville Beaver. She apologizes for her broken English and listens attentively as The Beaver probes why she finds herself waiting for food bank volunteers to fill her grocery order. She explains she and her husband and three children moved to Oakville from Colombia four years ago. They are professionals, she says. They have three children. They sold their home, everything, to come to Canada. They are adjusting to a new culture, language, life. Her husband, 45, is a mechanical engineer, but was working as a machine operator until he was laid off -- close to one year ago. It isn't until some minutes into the interview that the 42-year-old Oakville resident reveals she was a doctor in her native Colombia. She serves food at a seniors' residence and she cleans churches and salons in the evenings. They could move back to Colombia, but they sold everything. As many new Canadians do, they must get recertified in their fields to work in them here. Joan also tries to take courses in the evenings, but it's tough to do it when finances are the issue and she works. "It's very important for us, this food," said Joan, explaining it helps make ends meet for her family. A believer in quality food and from a Spanish culture where home cooking is a mainstay of life, Joan said her family does what it can despite the canned food and ready-to-eat nature of food bank fare. And they do not look a gift horse in the mouth. "This service is very, very important. If we did not have this kind of food, I don't know what would happen with my family," said Joan. "I think it's a good country, GRAHAM PAINE / OAKVILLE BEAVER SHARING AT EASTER: Fareshare food bank volunteer Ron Ziegel stocks cans of fruit cocktail onto mostly barren shelves in preparation for the annual Easter Food Drive that begins Saturday, March 27 and continues to Sunday, April 11. Canada, and the people are very friendly. It's difficult to change your culture, your language, your friends, but Canadian people, I think they try to understand." For John (not his real name), a move to Oakville from Toronto in 2003 landed his family renting a home in a neighbourhood with none of the crime or drug culture that existed in the bigger city. It also, however, landed them at Fareshare food bank. John admitted his family has been a client for several years. "Low income," is the problem, he said. "Of course, money is always the case." "I have a contract job and still do, when there is a job," said the 52-yearold who is a web designer. His wife cannot work because of a surgery complication and is home raising their three children aged eight, five and four. Although the food bank allows only one visit a month, it's enough of a supplement to help John's family get by as he struggles with rent that was higher than in Toronto and said he hopes the economy rebounds sooner than later as his daughter is eight and he said he must start saving for her future. Their stories do not surprise longtime Oakville resident and volunteer executive director of Fareshare, Dudley Clark. It takes what Clark calls "courage" for immigrants to come to a country and begin anew. Usually it's desperation that drives Helping hand always welcome While all non-perishable donations are acceptable, instead of the usual pasta and canned soup type of donation, Fareshare would welcome receiving the non-perishable items on which it usually runs short -- canned fruit, canned vegetables (except corn), cookies and crackers, vegetable oil, canned stew, junior baby food, baby formula and desserts. Cash donations also enable Fareshare buy items should the food bank run low, to purchase fresh foods like milk, meat and produce and to provide vouchers redeemable at local supermarkets for milk and fresh fruit for children. Donations can be dropped off at Fareshare at 1240 Speers Rd., Unit 6, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday to Saturday, all Oakville fire stations and in all Oakville supermarkets collection bins. people to pick up the telephone or walk in the door enquiring if they qualify at the food bank -- and there are many reasons for it, according to Clark. After filling out an application and disclosing their income and expenses, a food bank user has a meeting with a screening volunteer (who Clark said have developed, over time, a sixth sense about people's true needs) and they are either turned away or registered. Once a month, they can visit during food bank hours -- Mondays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. It's not enough to get by on for a month, but it stretches those ends that are hard to meet for the working poor -- for the most part young singles or couples and families. Clark hopes the upcoming Easter Food Drive, which takes place Saturday, March 27 to Sunday, April 11 will help the food bank make ends meet. While the Thanksgiving food drive usually draws larger donations -- and is backed by giving during the Christmas season -- it is the Easter drive that must stock the shelves for Fareshare to put food on the table for its clients through the spring, summer and early fall. With the economy nose-diving and continuing to flounder, despite indications it is on the upswing, the past year has been tough all around. Clark went into the global financial crisis fearing the worst and, at one point, was concerned there may not be food on the shelves of the food bank at all. Generosity in the community put the fear of running out of food to bed, however, the numbers of clients skyrocketed, much as Clark had feared. The statistics say more people turned to the food bank than did in the economic downturn of the early 1990s. Last year -- and so far in 2010 -- an average 377 visits are made to Fareshare each month. With more than half of those visits by families with children, Fareshare puts food in the tummies of approximately 1,200 people a month. "I really was quite pessimistic. Last year's numbers kept getting bigger and bigger," admitted Clark. "We had enough food to meet the requirements, but we can always use more," said Clark. "If you have 100 clients and 100 cans, you can give everybody one can, but is it enough? Is one can any good to anyone?" So Clark looks to the food drive that begins this weekend and implores residents who have full refrigerators to, once again and as is a local tradition, remember those who don't. And while economic recovery may be at hand, job creation as a result of that recovery may be some time in coming, said Clark. The faces lined up to get their monthly food basics, and fill out a second wish list of items (which Fareshare can usually accommodate because of the town's generosity), are typically those of young to middleaged people. Their reasons for visiting are many -- from job loss to low income, from exhausted benefits to disability like mental illness that prevents clients from breaking the cycle of poverty. "I don't see too many older people and that makes me happy," said Clark. That may be a pride factor at work, but Clark said that factor exists for everyone and he believes rather that seniors have a steady pension income. "The fact is seniors have been looked after better by governments across the years than families and kids," said Clark. "As a society, we are left with a group of people who, for a multitude of reasons, just don't support themselves to a certain standard of living. They aren't literally starving, with extended bellies as we see in many Third World countries, but they have a lifestyle that does not equate to what we would hope to be the case in this country." "They are in that position for a whole variety of reasons," said Clark, noting some are poorly educated, grew up in a cycle of poverty, are disabled with mental disorders and more. Food donations can be dropped off at the food bank located at 1240 Speers Rd., Unit 6, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday to Saturday, all Oakville fire stations and in all Oakville supermarkets where collection bins have been provided by Fareshare. For information or to donate, visit Fareshare at 1240 Speers Rd., Unit 6 or call 905-847-3988.