This St. John's food bank is running out of time to find a new home

A food bank caught in the middle of the sweeping sale of Roman Catholic churches in Newfoundland is looking for a new home. 

The Corpus Christi Church, in the west end of St. John's, was sold last year to law firm Stewart McKelvey, acting as the agent for an unnamed buyer. The sale means the food bank, which operates in a building separate of the church but on the same property, has to move.

"Our time is up here so we've been looking for a new place to operate from. But due to high rents and things like that, it's not easy to get a space that we need," Katherine Fleming, who has been a volunteer with the food bank for 20 years, said Wednesday.  

"It's been really difficult. We've had government people looking for us, city councillors, the ones from the area, and they can't seem to come up with anything with a low rent or free space if possible."

A group of volunteers with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul operates the food bank but now there's a time crunch: the group has until the end of May to find a new space. The new owner of the property already gave the group one extension, said Fleming, but that was all.

Fleming said the food bank needs a space of about 1,000 to 1,500 square feet to operate in and hopes to remain in the west end so it can continue to serve the residents of the area. She said it serves about 200 individuals and families each month and, like many other food banks in the province, there's been an increase in demand. 

"Our time is getting short and we're putting in a last-ditch effort into securing a place to operate from," Fleming said. 

"We thought maybe there was some other organization or church or something that would be able to give us some help but most places are out of our reach rent-wise. We just hope that we'll get somewhere to move to by the end of this month."

If the deadline passes before the group finds a new space, Fleming said, they will donate its food to other food banks and store anything left over in a warehouse. 

Government promises help: Abbott

Children, Seniors and Social Development Minister John Abbott said Wednesday afternoon he's aware of the situation and has been speaking with the area's MHA, Tom Osborne, about it. 

"The MHA has been working with them. We now will step in and make sure that they do find a home," said Abbott after question period.

"Part of it is just going to be the logistics of finding an appropriate space but once we can sort that out with them then we'll make sure that service is up and running because it is needed in that part of the city for sure."

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