Seniors living in community housing open food bank to help other seniors

A group of compassionate seniors in London are giving back with the little that they have to help other seniors struggling with food insecurity.

Virginia Harrie,Fran Wassmerand Mary Blancher all live in a geared-to-income housing building for seniors at 30 Baseline RoadW., which is affiliated with London Middlesex Community Housing.

About halfof the tenants are going without food on a monthly basis, according to Blancher.

"We find that seniors are falling through the cracks and we are trying to help the littlest way we can just by feeding them for a few days."- Virginia Harrie

"There was a great need and there were a lot of people that really needed assistance and they were suffering in silence," Blancher said.

To help out, the women banded together and kick-started an in-house food bank dubbed the Caring Cupboard.

It's where seniors living in the building can go once a month to collect three days' worth of food that's been donated by community members.

"We don't have a lot of income. We've had challenges to face. We understand what a lot of the needs are. We are fortunate that we can put this together in order to help others, where we could have used that kind of help in the past," Harrie said.

How it works

The Caring Cupboard launched for the first time last Wednesday and attracted about five people on a walk-in basis.

Wassmer said other users preferreda delivery system because they had mobility challenges or were 'embarrassed.'

"We can gently go and talk to them" whenever that's the case, she said.

During its first run, Harrie said, the group cleared out three shelves-full of canned goods, fresh fruit, meat pies "you name it."

Shesaid a little can go a long way because many in the building are having to make tough decisions like "deciding between food and prescriptions."

"A lot of people aren't well versed in budgeting and don't have enough money to make it through for the rest of the month," she said.

Big picture

The trio agrees that the conception of the Caring Cupboard speaks to a bigger issue surrounding poverty and food insecurity.

"We find that seniors are falling through the cracks and we are trying to help the littlest way we can just by feeding them for a few days," Harrie said.

An official withLondon Middlesex Community Housing told CBC that "even with rent-geared-to-income (RGI) social housing provision, making ends meet and accessing the services needed to age in place is a challenge," adding that service cuts by the provincial government have implications on seniors, and that less services mean seniors having to depend on one another.

"We applaud the generosity, resilience and care demonstrated by our tenants toward each other and work to foster and support this in every way possible," a statement read.

When asked how long they want to keep the project going, the seniorssaid "until we can't." They hope other buildings can hop on board and introduce similar initiatives.

Donation items needed:

• canned fruit, vegetables, meats/fish
• frozen fruit, vegetables
• pasta, rice, cereal, oatmeal, crackers
• peanut butter, jam, pasta sauce

If you donate:

• Items can be picked up from your location or dropped off at 30 Baseline Rd. W.