Food bank demand during pandemic not as high in Cochrane as elsewhere in Ontario

Food Ontario – the umbrella organization for food banks across the province — says already-high demand jumped again when the pandemic first began.

“Up here, not as much,” states Cochrane Food Bank manager Claude Rocheleau. He attributes that to the area not losing a lot of jobs,and those that were lost being low-paying.

“The government gave them $2,000 so we were ahead of the game as far as the North,” he says, “because no mines were shut down, no mills were shut down.”

That $2,000 is from the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).

Neither has the Cochrane Food Bank had any problem meeting the demand for food so far during the coronavirus pandemic. Rocheleau says part of the credit goes to Food Ontario.

“Normal year, I’ll get anywhere from four to five truckloads,” he observes. “Just in three months, I did get five loads.”

It also helped that donations from Cochrane residents increased. Rocheleau says the people are so generous, it’s unbelievable.