Barrhaven Food Cupboard at risk of closing, looking to raise $180,000

The Barrhaven Food Cupboard has launched an urgent appeal for donations.

The volunteer-run organization says it needs to raise $180,000 by the end of the year or it may be at risk of closing or having to scale back.

"We may have to consider, ‘Is this sustainable, and could we have to close? And that’s really hard to say, because there’s such a need here that we want to remain open," says Matthew Triemstra, Director of Communications.

"We’ve seen a tremendous increase. We are serving on average 50 per cent more clients now than we were a year ago, and that’s made our operations almost unsustainable," he tells CTV News Ottawa.

According to organizers, up to 25 families turn to The Barrhaven Food Cupboard on any given day.

"Last month, we served over 1,500 people, which is about 400 families," says Triemstra.

Higher food prices mean bigger costs and an increased demand.

"We used to spend about $10,000 a month on food. That has gone up to close to $40,000," says Triemstra.

It is now fundraising and exploring options, says board president Ken McCarthy.

"Reaching out to individuals, reaching out to businesses, also taking a look at what other food cupboards or other food banks are doing to see if there’s some other opportunities for us to learn how to do things differently, find out about their funding models, and see if we can make some adjustments, so we can satisfy this $180,000 dollar deficit."

Since launching the fundraising campaign on June 30, $45,000 has been raised so far.

"Barrhaven has always been generous," says Triemstra.

"We’ve needed food, food has come in and we’ve given food back out, but we are 100 per cent independent, we are 100 per cent volunteer-run, and we’re 100 per cent reliant on donations. So, this moment in time, in which demand has sky-rocketed and the cost of everything has gone up, has meant that we have had to re-evaluate our sources of revenue, and for the first time we’ve kind of launched a fundraising appeal,"

If you’d like to donate, click here.