Did you know that NSUPE makes a monthly donation to Feed Nova Scotia?
I was recently invited to tour the Feed Nova Scotia facility located in Burnside to learn more about the impact of NSUPE’s donation.
During my visit I learned that food is donated from local stores, farmers, and the general public. It was incredible to see what I thought was a large amount of food only to learn that it is roughly a three-week supply. I also learned that Feed Nova Scotia does not directly provide food to Nova Scotians. Feed NS is a distribution hub that handles the procurement and the logistics of providing food to Nova Scotia’s 145 food banks and meal programs.
Jessica Hawkes, Development Manager for Feed Nova Scotia, explained that people from all backgrounds, situations, and ethnicities use food banks and that most users only use a food bank between 1-3 times. It was interesting to learn how Feed Nova Scotia is getting creative with some large donations. For example, Feed Nova Scotia is considering turning a portion of a large sweet potato donation into frozen fries and taking baby food that is nearing its expiration and dehydrating it to make fruit leather.
According to Feed Nova Scotia’s statistics, Nova Scotia is the province with the highest rate of food insecurity in Canada with about 1 in 6 households experiencing food insecurity.
To learn more about Feed Nova Scotia, please visit www.feednovascotia.ca.
This post was written by NSUPE’s Communications Manager, Sherry Forester.