At the end of March, 2023, the Community Food Helpline will be closing. Here’s what you need to know.
Why is the Helpline closing?
There are two main reasons:
It has no funding: There is no long-term or dedicated government funding available for the Helpline. The service has been funded so far through a series of short-term and ad-hoc arrangements, which often come together at the last minute. We cannot keep the Helpline running like this because there is a very high risk that we would have to close the service suddenly and without warning if/when funding didn’t come together. That would be even harder on the folks who use the Helpline and on our staff.
It’s no longer effective: The Helpline is no longer able to work the way it was intended to. The Helpline is meant to be an emergency service that fills gaps between other social supports but the cost-of-living crisis has created an ongoing and increasing surge in demand. This huge demand means that the Helpline’s callback wait times have gotten as long as 7 weeks. It is no longer filling its purpose as an emergency response or filling the needs of the service users. The Helpline cannot do the job of the social safety net, which is simply not strong enough right now. We need a stronger social safety net before we can create effective services to fill gaps. We know that food insecurity is primarily an income problem, and people urgently need more money in their pockets, not more food charity.
What services will be available before it closes?
The Helpline reopened to calls on Monday, January 16th. Here’s what services will look like up to the end of March:
Staff will continue to operate the Helpline as usual as long as we have the resources to do so. That means that people will still be able to leave a voicemail/text/email to specify what kind of service they need, and receive a call back from Helpline staff.
Once we run out of money for gift cards and meals, we will continue to assist with deliveries from food banks. We’ll support deliveries until the end of March and maybe a little longer.
We will keep the Helpline voicemail message up-to-date with what services remain available. We will make it clear what people can request (e.g. if you can request a gift card or if we can only provide delivery).
Our staff will connect service users to other community services for ongoing support, whenever possible.
Will any supports still be available after March 31st?
We hope so. Our delivery partner in Metro St. John’s, the Local Wellness Collective, would like to continue providing delivery services to food programs. We heard from food program providers and users during the Rethinking Food Charity process that there is a need for more shared services, including delivery, so more people can use the food programs accessibly. With that in mind, Food First NL and the Local Wellness Collective will immediately begin seeking resources to continue their delivery services.
Folks experiencing food insecurity can also continue to reach out to 211. 211 has a 24-hour call centre and a database of information about social services in Newfoundland and Labrador. They can connect folks to food programs that might be able to help.
Who helped create and operate the Helpline?
Many community partners have been involved with the creation and operation of the Community Food Helpline, including:
SeniorsNL — provided extensive database and call-management support.
The Jimmy Pratt Foundation — co-founded the line and began the direct aid program (e.g. deliveries and gift cards).
Hungry Heart Cafe — provided meal kits.
Fonemed/811 — provided service integration.
211 — took over service navigation and provided extensive data support.
Local Wellness Collective — served as the Helpline’s delivery partner in the Metro St. John’s area, completing more than 6,800 deliveries during the life of the service.
Funding was first provided by the Government of Canada through various pandemic relief programs and then by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador through multiple departments.
Food First NL would like to send heartfelt thanks to all of our partners, supporters, and staff of the Helpline over the past nearly three years. It has been a journey of a thousand steps and we couldn’t have done it without all of your dedication and contributions.
How can I help?
It is always hard to see a service like this come to an end. If you want to help, there are two ways:
Financial help: If you have the ability to help financially or are connected to a funding source, please reach out to us. We are supporting the Local Wellness Collective to find funding to continue their delivery services.
Advocacy: This is the big one. The real solution here is not more food charity or better food charity. The solution is a stronger social safety net that puts money in people’s pockets that prevents people from becoming food insecure in the first place. That’s never been more true than it is now, with the cost of living skyrocketing. It’s important to reach out to elected officials (find your provincial representatives here and your federal ones here) and make sure they know this is critically important and immediately urgent. Here are a few of the policies that could help:
More short-term cost-of-living relief for folks with low income: We’ve seen a couple one-time payments happen over the last year to help households cope. There’s space for more, ideally targeted at the lowest-income households. This isn’t a substitute for long-term action, but it will help people hold things together while longer-term solutions are put in place.
Indexing social supports to inflation: Right now programs like Income Support aren’t adjusted for inflation. This means that households have to stretch their incomes further and further every single year (although occasionally they receive a one-time top-up). Indexing to inflation (which used to be the case) would mean that folks relying on Income Support could keep up with rising costs-of-living more easily.
Raising Income Support rates: we know that most folks who rely on Income Support are food insecure. That’s no surprise because the rates are far, far below the poverty line. Increasing Income Support rates would go a long way towards reducing demand on food charities.
Raising the minimum wage: Food insecurity isn’t just something experienced by people relying on Income Support or other social programs. Almost half of the food-insecure households in N.L. are folks who earn employment income. It is incredibly difficult to make ends meet with the minimum wage we have now, which is far below a living wage. The current minimum wage is $13.70 and a living wage was pegged at $18.85 in 2018 when it was last measured, and is certainly much higher now. Read more about the connection between minimum wage and food insecurity in our policy submission.
A guaranteed basic income: A guaranteed basic income was recommended by the Health Accord and is now being studied by an all-party committee here in N.L. A basic income could drastically reduce poverty and provide some much-needed psychological security along with it. Learn more on the Basic Income NL website.
More information about policy changes that could improve food insecurity rates is available on our blog.
There is a lot of thinking about these kinds of changes happening right now, thanks to the Health Accord and the new Social and Economic Well-Being Plan among others. However, the implementation of those plans is still a ways off. It’s important to remember that people are in crisis now and that some of these responses need to be urgent.
Stay in Touch
If you want to stay engaged with other community organizations in this space, or support the Local Wellness Collective in continuing their delivery services, reach out to Josh Smee, CEO at Food First NL, at josh@foodfirstnl.ca
If you work with a community organization active in the food security sector, Food First NL also co-chairs the provincial Food Security Working Group - feel free to reach out for more information.
