Barrie Food Bank

Founded in July of 1984, we are celebrating 25 years of serving our community this year. We are not government funded, and all of our achievements at combating hunger are community supported.

Our mission is: To provide temporary food relief to individuals and families of our community who are in need, and to serve as a resource to encourage and guide them along the road to self sufficiency. Our policies are designed to achieve this mission.
To this end we seek to discourage dependency and encourage self-sufficiency. In our treatment of those who come to us for assistance, we strive to demonstrate compassion and respect for their dignity, and to serve as a source of encouragement.

To ensure that our assistance is being provided to those with a valid need, we conduct confidential interviews to review the income and expenses for everyone who requests assistance. Our intake interviewing is designed to serve two purposes: 1. to qualify the need. 2. too reveal opportunities for personal advocacy (identifying steps in consultation with the recipient to improve their circumstances).

Interviews are conducted from 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We also have a morning drop-in each weekday from Monday to Friday, 8:30 – 11:30am for baked goods, canned foods, and produce when it is available. The morning program is intended to be a supplement to the afternoon program and we do not require an interview or documents, nor do we limit the number of times a person can access this service. Included in the more than 9,000 people who utilize this service each year, are the homeless and transient members of our community

No matter how well we are supported by our community we recognize that we have limited resources. We therefore require a 30 day waiting period between full food orders. The number of times per year that a family can receive assistance depends on their personal situation. We want to avoid developing dependencies, so that we can extend our assistance as needed to other individuals and families during the time of their crisis; unemployment, loss of health and so on. There is no policy which will cover every circumstance and considerable discretion is entrusted to our staff and volunteers to respond to specific situations.

The Barrie Food Bank distributes 500,000 pounds of food annually, while assisting close to 20,000 individuals and family members; 40% (8000) are children, and 60% of the families that we assist are single parent families. The value of food and food vouchers distributed annually far exceeds one million dollars. Unquestionably the Barrie Food Bank makes a significant contribution in preventing homelessness. Our provision of food to a family is often the only reason that they are able to pay their rent and utilities, and thus remain in their residence. The scope of the services that we provide, year after year, is only accomplished with outstanding dedication by our Board, staff and volunteers, and the generous support of the community.