Feeding those in need: Community supports Spryfield breakfast program
Food is one of the most basic human needs. And yet, in this country 1-in-8 families suffer from food insecurity, leading to over 850,000 Canadians utilizing food banks every year.
While many Canadians will pull up a chair around the table for a Thanksgiving feast this weekend, others continue to wonder where their next meal will come from. Last year alone, The Salvation Army provided 2.8 million free meals from a variety of feeding programs across the country.
In the Halifax neighbourhood of Spryfield, The Salvation Army runs a breakfast program every weekday, open to all comers. For the past four years, the location has offered a hot breakfast on Thursday mornings, and has seen a steady increase in attendance. Last month, they began a new project offering a continental breakfast each of the remaining weekdays.
In addition to nourishing the body, the program also helps people connect with their community, as regulars meet new friends around the breakfast table, and build relationships with volunteers who care about their well-being.
“I think programs like this are really important,” says Major Sharon MacLeod, Corps Officer in Spryfield. “It’s not even all about just the physical need of the food. It’s really beneficial for the physical, mental and spiritual need. We have many people come and talk to us about their home life, how they’re struggling and how they’re very thankful for what we can provide.”
Last week, a food drive was held at Mike’s No Frills in Spryfield, in cooperation with radio station The Wave 89.9, to support the breakfast program. Customers received a flyer with a shopping list of items required for the program and they quickly went to work collecting them. In the end, shoppers donated over 300 items of vital importance to the program, including pancake mix, syrup, eggs, frozen fruit, coffee, granola bars and more.
“We received even more than we expected,” says Major MacLeod, who has been working in Spryfield for the past year, along with husband Kirk. “It was nice to see the community respond like that. I was speaking to Mike at No Frills, and he said in Spryfield it’s very common to see the community come together to help someone in need, where in other places they don’t. Seeing a lot of people drop off food and be interested in the program was amazing.”
The breakfast program in Spryfield is one of many feeding programs run by The Salvation Army in the Maritimes. Others include a lunch soup kitchen in Summerside, PEI, a weekly supper program in downtown Halifax, a breakfast program in Charlottetown, and cold weather street feeding program during winter months in Halifax, just to name a few.
If you need support, or if you would like to volunteer at a program, please contact your local Salvation Army location. CLICK HERE for a list of all our locations in the Maritimes.
