Imagine walking into a store, picking out all your groceries for the week and not having to worry about facing an expensive bill at the checkout.
For clients of the Regina Food Bank, that will soon be a reality.
Since the pandemic, there has been a spike in food bank users across the country, up 25 per cent in Regina alone. One in eight families — and one in four children — are now food insecure in the city. Of the 16,000 monthly clients, 44 per cent are kids.
The new Regina Food Bank Community Food Hub, modelled after a traditional grocery store, is set to open this summer in the former government liquor store location downtown.
Headline is misleading. This is a food bank that allows their clients to choose their own products and sets the product out like a grocery store.
Typically food banks will give clients a standard box of items but not everyone uses all of it. Allowing clients to pick their own items reduces waste and setting it up like a grocery store just makes sense.
Clients still need to register with the food bank and are restricted to $200 worth of items every two weeks.
yeah we already have one of those in Toronto. it’s a food bank that looks like a small grocery store. you don’t get a pre-packaged box of stuff nor does a volunteer walk around with you putting stuff in your bag. you just walk around and pick out what you want.
People get embarrassed using food banks, they shouldn’t be but I’ve seen it first hand. you line up outside waiting for it to open and some people just get uncomfortable lining up thinking people walking by are judging them (they’re not) and it also doesn’t help that stigma when you’re inside and have to wait on a volunteer to fill up your bags for you asking you what you want.