Regina Food Bank helping more people than ever 40 years after opening
CBC
When Sarah Wilson moved to Regina from Ontario seven years ago to ensure her family would be all together, she needed support.
Wilson had just left a relationship and was raising her five daughters alone.
"I just fell into this small gap," said Wilson. "I wasn't getting the benefits because I had separated. Child tax had already stopped. I think our monthly budget, looking back, was $165."
She turned to the Regina Food Bank.
With a little one still in diapers and a budget that did not make ends meet, Wilson said food bank hampers kept her fridge from being empty.
"I used it about three times during that period, until I could get all the paperwork in order and fill in some of those gaps and just get back doing what I needed to be doing," said Wilson.
Now, as a regular weekly volunteer at the food bank, Wilson gives back the help she received.
"I always let anybody who comes know I used to use the food bank too," said Wilson.
"I could possibly one day have to use it again."
When the Regina & District Food Bank cut the ribbon at its grand opening on June 27, 1983, it was just the second food bank in Canada. Edmonton incorporated its own in 1981.
Regina's food bank was supposed to be a temporary solution to food insecurity in a time of high inflation.
It worked out of the basement of the Regina Rent-It Centre, but demand was so great that within a year the food bank moved to the Co-op Dairy Building on the corner of Albert Street and Saskatchewan Drive.
Donations grew so much that it moved twice in the next two decades, first to 2201 First Avenue and then to its permanent home at 445 Winnipeg Street.
The demand for help has only continued to increase, and with it the need for volunteers.
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