Demand is up, but food and volunteers are low at the Downtown Mission
'We're doing the best we can to keep up,' says Mission's interim executive director
John Hilt has been volunteering at the Downtown Mission for about 10 years, and at times has needed to access the food bank himself.
"Some days I do, some days I don't, but I always come back to return the favour," Hilt said as he prepared meals Tuesday.
"I wish more people did that but, can't help that," he said.
It's one of Windsor's largest homeless shelters, and its in need of more donations and volunteers to keep pace with the "huge increase" in food bank users seen over the last year.
Compared to last year, the Downtown Mission said as of the end of October, it has had a 14 per cent increase in demand for service — helping an estimated 6,830 households access food.
"There is a big need," the Mission's interim executive director Rukshini Ponniah-Goulin told CBC Radio's Windsor Morning host Tony Doucette Tuesday.
"Typically colder season, colder weather, we get more and more individuals coming to us for hot ... meals."
Ponniah-Goulin said they rely on food donations, but also financial ones.
With the pandemic, she added that many food and donation drives were cancelled and have just started back up again.
And while they "definitely need food," she said they also need volunteers.
"We need volunteers in a big way. We're down probably I would say 70 per cent of the volunteers of what we would typically have in any given month," Ponniah-Goulin said.
"We're doing the best we can to keep up."
"There's a larger demand, a lot of single people, a lot of families are coming and a lot of people with that pride barrier — 'Oh I have pride, I don't need to go,'" said Hilt. "They're coming in because they really do need it."
Despite that need, the mission's shelter system was forced to reduce its capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Ponniah-Goulin.
"We had to have our beds socially-distanced, they couldn't be bunked," she said. "Thankfully, we had some federal money come in to help, us that flowed through the city of Windsor."
"So we worked with the City of Windsor, we worked with our health unit, to provide a second floor of shelter space," Ponniah-Goulin said. "We have 40 beds on each floor right now. We're currently working with the city and the health unit to see what we can do to increase the beds."
Over the last few weeks, people are being turned away because there aren't enough beds available at the mission, Ponniah-Goulin said.
"Sometimes we're able to find another bed for them at another shelter, or are able to get them connected with a family member or friend to stay the night with them," she said. "But unfortunately, that's not always the case."
The Downtown Mission's food bank is located at 875 Ouellette Avenue and operates from Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Sounds of the Season is CBC Windsor's annual fundraiser in support of the Windsor-Essex Food Bank Association. It's also a chance to take a closer look at the reasons people in our city are in need, and the steps being taken to help them.
Donate to the Windsor-Essex Food Bank Association now!
