Regina food bank opens new location with grocery-shopping choice model

REGINA — Walking inside Regina’s new food bank is as “outside the box” as it can get, says organization CEO John Bailey.

The facility allows clients to select their items as if grocery shopping, rather than having to take pre-made hampers.

While some other food banks in Canada use the grocery store model, the Regina food bank says its additional downtown location is believed to be the only one in Canada operating in a purpose-built space outside its warehouse.

“When you look around, you don’t see a food bank, you see a grocery store,” Bailey told reporters Thursday during the grand opening of the BMO Asahtowikamik Community Food Hub in the city’s downtown.

Asahtowikamik means feeding lodge in Cree.

“You don’t see a handout but a hand up,” Bailey said.

“It’s more empowering and less institutionalized. To come here to pick what you want, and what you don’t want, is really important.”

The centre expects to help feed more than 7,000 people a month, nearly half of whom are children.

“We want to make sure we’re getting food in the hands of kids because we do think that’s a really great way to break the cycle,” Bailey said.

Along the aisles there are canned and dry goods, bread, spreads, fresh produce, meat and dairy products.

Bailey said clients come in by appointment and are given a shopping cart and grocery list to see what items are available.

The list tells them how much they can take, he said, and people are generally checking out with a few days’ worth of food.

If appointments are full, he added, clients are scheduled in for the next available day and provided with alternatives to get a meal or other assistance.

Bailey said the model allows the organization to know what items are popular. It can then focus on purchasing those goods rather than ones that don’t get used.

“We will know what goes in and what goes out, and we can adapt to the needs and wants of the community,” he said.

The hub will also offer financial and nutritional literacy, along with Indigenous programming.

Outside the building is a new playground and basketball court. A mural painted on the back of the facility shows a long table with plates of food on the Saskatchewan prairie, with a farmer nearby.

In 2023, Regina’s food bank served more than 65,000 households, an increase of 17 per cent from the previous year.

Food banks across Canada have reported skyrocketing use due to higher grocery prices, rent increases and other pressures affecting the cost of living.

Bailey said the food bank shouldn’t have to expand, but said it’s become necessary to respond to people’s needs.

“We know that when a household is more food secure, there’s better outcomes for that family,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2024.

Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press