COVID-19 – A Message for those using our Service

With the COVID-19 crisis the Barrie Food Bank has closed its Morning Drop In program for the immediate future. It is our hope to continue to provide groceries during our Afternoon Grocery Program.

We are providing pre-packaged grocery hampers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons between 1:00pm and 3:30pm. We ask people to practice social distancing and to not line up ahead of time for the grocery program.

We have introduced an expedited process for the safety and well-being of our clients, volunteers and staff which takes less than 5 minutes.

While these are our plans today, our staff will be monitoring the overall COVID-19 situation daily to ensure the safety of everyone involved.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Peter Sundborg
Executive Director

A Message for our Donors

The year 2020 has been a year of uncertainty, of change, of challenge for everyone and the Barrie Food Bank is no exception. We have changed our processes, cancelled events, adapted to how we serve our clients and how we work with our volunteers and donors. The safety and well-being of our clients, donors, volunteers and staff is first and foremost.

With this in mind the traditional Thanksgiving Food Drive will be anything but traditional, this year we will move away from accepting food donations and move toward a financial campaign. Our goal this Thanksgiving is to raise $150,000.00. These funds will allow us to keep our shelves stocked as we work with local grocery stores to purchase the food needed to serve our clients. We believe that funds raised locally should be spent locally to support those who support the food bank.

In the coming months the Barrie Food Bank will see increased demand on our services as people are laid off, have less hours of employment or we could potentially see businesses close. We want to be prepared to help these neighbors in our community, but we need your help.

We are not asking for food donations at this time, as we do not want you putting yourself at further risk shopping picking up groceries for the food bank. We would like to encourage you to visit our website www.barriefoodbank.org to make an online donation or if you would prefer to write a cheque please mail your donation to Barrie Food Bank P.O. Box 145, Barrie, ON L4M 4S5 rather than delivering it.  

Thank you for your support, and for making a difference in the lives of people you may never have the opportunity of meeting.

Sincerely 

Peter Sundborg 
Executive Director