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Squamish food bank seeing more two-parent families

Higher housing prices are making it difficult for some to afford food

While single-parent families are likely the largest group relying on the Squamish Food Bank, the number of two-parent households has recently gone up. 

The increasing cost of housing in the district means more families, even with both parents working, are unable to afford the basics. 

The diversity of people who depend on the food bank is great, said Christina Rupp, director of the Squamish Food Bank. 

“We have a wide demographic,” she said, adding that seniors are also high up on the list of people in need. 

Rupp speculates that, although demand on the food bank is increasing, the magnitude may be reduced somewhat by people who have simply determined that they can no longer afford to live in Squamish and have moved away.

“Our numbers certainly aren’t going down,” she said. “But I think some people have left town because they can’t afford to live in Squamish anymore. 

“I think that’s taken a little bit of the edge off the increased numbers for us. Maybe they’ve come here and thought it was a great place to be, but now they find they can’t afford to be here.”

With more families in need of food, volunteers were happy to collect 7,610 pounds of food during the fifth-annual Squamish Thanksgiving Food Drive on the weekend of Sept. 17. 

While that number is down a bit from the slightly more than 8,000 pounds the drive collected last year, organizers are considering it a great success, with an estimated one in five households in Squamish contributing foodstuffs.

Weighing food by the pound can be deceptive, said Geraldine Guilfoyle, president of the Squamish Multifaith Association, one of the partner agencies in the annual drive.

“Dried food weighs a lot less than canned food, for instance,” she said. 

With the help of around 60 volunteers, including members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which started the local food drive five years ago, volunteers from other churches, members of the Rotary Club, students from the high school and Quest University, grocery bags were distributed to 4,500 homes and then collected later.

“It’s a huge community effort,” Guilfoyle said. “We’re pleased.”

The Squamish drive is part of the province-wide B.C. Thanksgiving Food Bank. The purpose, she said, is of course to collect food, but also to increase awareness of the need in the community year-round for the services the food bank provides.

Rupp said this time of year is an important period for raising awareness among the public.

“It’s the beginning of the season when they are starting to think about giving,” she said. “It’s not to say that a lot of people don’t give all year-round, but between September, Thanksgiving-time and Christmas, is a time when people are thinking about how they’re going to help others. 

“So it’s a good time of year for us to remind people that we need support and people in this community need year-round support.”

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