Local charities team up to fight hunger in Brampton as food bank use on the rise

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Published July 26, 2022 at 10:37 am

Two local charities are working together to bundle food hampers to help give Brampton residents going through hard times a leg up.

GlobalMedic and Regeneration Brampton are re-packing 50 lbs bags of pantry staples like rice, lentils and kidney beans at the Regeneration food site in Brampton into smaller, individual care packages.

The bags are then delivered to the Regeneration Marketplace to support their clients.

“Repacking and donating food in this way allows us to produce food for a third to a quarter of the retail price,” Sameya Khan with GlobalMedic said in a release.

The program first launched in February 2020, and GlobalMedic says there have been over 1.89 million pounds of food since then.

Some 25 per cent of food banks are also reporting an increase in new visitors over the past six months, and 23 per cent of individuals are reporting experiencing hunger at least once in the previous two years.

“This leaves many families in a tough situation, and they are frequently having to decide whether to forgo meals in order to pay for things like housing, phone bills, and travel expenses,” Khan said.

This summer, the program is continuing to grow with the opening of a new GlobalMedic and Regeneration Brampton packing location in Brampton.

GlobalMedic has also opened up youth employment through the Canada Summer Jobs grant to hire five students to help support the packing of food staples to distribute to the local community.

According to statistics from Food Banks Canada, one in five Canadians are reporting going hungry – that’s an estimated 7 million people across the country.

Regeneration was founded in early 2020 in response to the food insecurity caused by the pandemic, and offers food and resources to individuals and families in Brampton.

GlobalMedic is a registered Canadian charity that runs capacity building programs and provides disaster relief services to large-scale catastrophes around the world.

For more information and to find ways you can help visit www.regenbrampton.com or www.globalmedic.ca.

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