our IMPACT

MAKING A DIFFERENCE 

At the Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre we are committed to ensuring a food-secure community where all people have access to safe, affordable, and nutritious food. Our programs and strategic partnerships aim to address the underlying issues contributing to hunger and poverty.

Together, we strive to solve hunger and create a hunger-free community.

Emergency nutrition

Emergency nutrition is available to community members who have nowhere else to turn. Our Emergency Food Hampers help provide 2-3 days’ of nutritious food items for families and individuals. Last year, 1,965,825 lbs of food was distributed to the community through 63,166 Emergency Food Hampers for families and individuals.

Last year, our Milk for Children program provided 68,363 litres of fresh milk to children 17 years and younger and pregnant or nursing mothers to ensure children receive the nutrients necessary to sustain their growth and development.

Creating Opportunities Strategy

The Creating Opportunities Strategy (COS) program offers three pathways: The Learning Pathway (LP), Workplace Experience Pathway(WEP), and Employment Transitions Pathway. The Literacy Pathway aims to help individuals improve their literacy, math, and computer skills. Our Workplace Experience Pathway helps individuals gain valuable skills and experience to assist with the transition to enter (or re-enter) the workforce. Participants gain hands-on experience and receive the tools and necessary support to help achieve their personal and professional goals. Our Employment Transitions Pathway provides additional support to past and present COS participants in their search for employment.

Garden Patch

Not only does the Garden Patch grow thousands of pounds of produce for the Emergency Food Hampers (15,937 lbs in 2021), it also hosts a number of educational workshops throughout the season for anyone interested in learning about how to garden. We focus our workshops on education and encouraging sustainable food sources. We provide seeds/vegetables and work alongside community members to offer the resources required to grow, store, and care for their fruits and vegetables. This approach helps reduce waste and cost while supporting food security in our community.

Clothing Depot

Our little shop offers community members the opportunity to shop in a traditional retail environment for a nominal fee for service. This direct cost savings means more money in community member’s pockets and the opportunity to use these funds to pay for rent, groceries, bills, etc.

Community members often come to the Clothing Depot to celebrate special occasions, like graduation and back to school. In 2018, we hosted our first Glam Grad Day and offered soon-to-be graduates a one-stop shopping experience. We were thrilled to help students celebrate this milestone by providing beautiful outfits and accessories for their big day.

The Clothing Depot supports every family member - pets included! Because we understand the emotional support animal companions provide, we are also happy to offer pet food to our customers.

Community Volunteer Income Tax Program

We're happy to report final numbers from the spring’s Community Volunteer Income Tax Program. Our team of volunteers served 2,058 community members with help filing tax returns, bringing $9,263,360.35 back into the local community through benefits, credits, and refunds. These funds in people’s pockets allow rent to be paid, groceries to be bought, and other household and children’s items to be purchased by community members living on lower incomes.

Community Cooking

Our cooking classes, like all of our programs, are designed with community members in mind. We focus the classes on preparing healthy and affordable meals, often using food items commonly received in Emergency Food Hampers. By introducing participants to new recipes and food items, community members can maximize the contents of their hampers.

Our Nutrition Program provides live, in-person and virtual cooking classes with a trained facilitator that allows participants to acquire additional food skills, often from the comfort of their own kitchens. The program aims to provide healthy food and learning opportunities to families, children and youth, Indigenous groups, newcomers to Canada, and others. While enrolled in the program, participants receive a cooking kit with the ingredients required to make a nutritious recipe twice.

In the last fiscal year, we delivered 76 online cooking classes and provided 721 ingredient kits, which resulted in 7,924 healthy meals served.

Volunteer

In an average year, the Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre welcomes approximately 1,609 volunteer hours per month. We invite volunteers from all different walks of life and abilities. We enjoy seeing diverse groups of volunteers making a difference in our community - students of all ages, small businesses, large corporations, groups from the faith community, etc. Our volunteers play an integral role in the daily operations of the SFBLC and we are very grateful for every individual and group that chooses to take action against poverty and hunger in our community.

Despite largely having to put our Volunteer Program on hold this past year due to COVID-19, we were thrilled to welcome back small groups of volunteers to our main building, as well as the Garden Patch, and virtually in the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program clinic, and Nutrition Program.

Community members are welcome to complete their community service hours at the Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre. Many of the people who complete their hours return to volunteer. This experience helps strengthen human capacity, creates strong community connections, and increases social capital.

Partnerships

We often partner with other community-minded organizations to ensure a broad range of services and resources are offered to community members. In the past 12 months some of these partnerships have included:

• Saskatchewan Health Authority COVID-19 Vaccination Clinics  

• CLASSIC

• OUTSaskatoon

• National Housing Coalition

• Str8 Up

• Prairie Harm Reduction

• Credit Counselling Society

• Express Employment Professionals

Advocating for Change

Members of the SFBLC team are involved in a number of collaborative efforts in the community: Saskatoon Reconciliation Committee, Saskatoon Literacy Coalition, Saskatchewan Career Development Association, Local Immigration Partnership (City of Saskatoon), Safe Community Action Alliance, Saskatoon Interagency Response to COVID, Food Banks Canada Network of Large Food Banks, Strategic Fundraising Advisory Council , National Policy Advisory Council, and Food Banks of Saskatchewan Board of Directors.

We also serve on a number of action teams and working groups which fall under the umbrella of the Saskatoon Poverty Reduction Partnership (SPRP), including:

• Food Security Action Team

• SPRP Leadership and Management Committee

• Public Washroom Task Force

• Second Chance Food  

These partnerships enable us to find common agendas for awareness-raising, activities, and systems change around poverty, food insecurity, literacy, employment, and reconciliation in Saskatoon.