Hospice in Sudbury relying on food bank to feed its residents

Citing tough economic times and an increase in the number of people using their end-of-life service, a Sudbury hospice says it's been relying on local food banks to feed its residents in their final days. 

Julie Aubé, Executive Director of Maison McCulloch Hospice, said the number of people making use of the hospice has doubled since the pandemic.

That has stretched staff, and the hospice's budget, thin.

"Fundraisers everywhere have struggled through the pandemic," Aubé said. "We're also dealing with an economic situation where people just don't have the money to give like they used to."

Aubé said their requirement for funding has grown to $1.45 million. Fundraising efforts last year were able to collect roughly $1 million. They've had to dig into reserves to cover the shortage. 

"It's scary," she said. "The fact that a healthcare service of this caliber has to rely on donations to pay our housekeepers, pay for our cleaning chemicals."

Calling it a "difficult pill to swallow," Aubé said the home now relies on the local food bank, estimating that agency donated just under $50,000 worth of food in 2022 to feed residents. 

"Without them," she said, "We would have an additional $50,000 fundraising requirement on our shoulders to bear."

Last fall, Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas asked the Ford government why the funding formula for hospices continues to leave hospices relying on fundraising to provide the basics. The government currently funds wages for nurses and PSWs at hospices.

"The community funding model that the hospices depend on is broken," Gélinas said. "The words 'hospice palliative care' are nowhere in the last budget that this government tabled."

"The reality is that the costs continue to escalate while community donation power is challenged by economic realities, including the pandemic."

While groups, like the Quality Hospice Palliative Care Coalition of Ontario, continue to lobby the government to up the funding for hospice care, Aubé said Maison McCulloch will continue to rely on its fundraising – its 50/50 draw has a pot of around $24,000 per winner – to stay afloat.

"We rely on this money to pay our food service people, to buy our cleaning chemicals, to pay our housekeepers, to pay our admin," Aubé said. 

"I don't know if people realize that. We just really need to see that 50/50 revenue increase if we're going to survive."