The Executive Director of the Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre says if we don’t think about how to include everyone when rebuilding the economy, we are failing. Laurie O’Connor says the pandemic has shone a light on inequities and many vulnerable people are facing an uncertain future, where they don’t know if they will get their jobs back, or how long the federal benefits will continue.

She would like to see definitive plans to support vulnerable people through the economic recovery, not just to the end of the pandemic. The federal government’s $100-million Emergency Food Security Fund helped Saskatchewan’s food banks. O’Connor says the 36 provincial food banks received $1.3-million and will be applying for more funding from a second announcement of another $100-million announced last month.

She explains that food banks had to change the way they do things when the pandemic hit because most of their public food donations would come from the grocery store bins, but people weren’t going to the store as often, and because people were being laid off, there was more need and fewer donations. The funding meant being able to buy some food and the supplies needed to keep everyone at the Food Banks safe like plastic barriers, masks and cleaners.