A new multi-year funding agreement from the New Brunswick government supporting provincial food banks is a step in the right direction, says Sackville Food Bank president Kelli Taylor.
Feed NB, essentially a distribution centre for the province’s food banks, will receive $9 million over the next three years—$2.75 million for 2026-27, $3 million for 2027-28, and $3.25 million for 2028-29.
While the provincial government has helped with varying amounts on an emergency basis since 2021, the consistency shows a change in how the government is handling food insecurity, said Taylor, who also oversees the Second Chances Thrift Store.
“ I think it’s a positive, positive first step that now the government is finally taking us seriously enough to realize that we’re here and it’s a problem and it’s not really going away. It’s just getting worse. So let’s be proactive in attacking it.”
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Increasing need
Statistics from Food Banks Canada continue to show increases in food bank usage, with 32,343 total visits in New Brunswick in 2025, a 45.3 per cent increase since 2019.
The per cent increase is even greater locally, said Taylor, who started volunteering about five years ago. At that time, the Sackville Food Bank was supporting 50 to 55 households on a regular basis. This year, that number has nearly doubled and fluctuates between 90 and 105 households.
And while increases of any sort are concerning, rising costs of living are driving more double-income families to turn to the vital service.
“ Basically, these are people, good people that have good jobs, but they’re not able to make ends meet with the rise in rents, with the rise in groceries, rise in hydro, rise in gas,” she said. “They’re having a harder and harder time to just make ends meet, so they’re coming to the food bank to get a little bit of help to feed their families.”
Community support
The government said in a release that it would reassess the funding after three years to determine if it’s still meeting the need. In the meantime, Taylor will keep working with the community to get the organization what it needs to help those who rely on it.
Part of that work includes the Second Chances Thrift Store, which the Sackville Food Bank opened last August as a way to fundraise. In its first eight months, Taylor said the store donated $25,000 to the food bank.
There are also plans to start a capital drive in the coming months to support the group’s efforts to find a new location.
But all of the money in the world would be useless without people to help sort, distribute, deliver and otherwise do all the work required to get the help to those who need it, said Taylor.
“ We get a lot of support from the community with donations that I’ve talked about, but the volunteers are just the best, and we have about 55 volunteers at the food bank, and we have about another 25 or 30 at the store,” she said. “So it’s about 80, 85 people that voluntarily give up their time to help other people and their neighbours in this community, and we couldn’t do it without them.”
