It’s a sign of the times.
The fact the Mustard Seed Street Church, which operates Greater Victoria’s largest food bank, recently took out a second mortgage on a piece of its property, just to help pay the bills, is an indication that the financial balance may be as out of whack as the Occupy Victoria crowd say it is.
The food bank division of the church is holding its own from a food donation perspective. But as food bank director Brent Palmer stated, you can’t fuel trucks with turnips.
If the Mustard Seed doesn’t have enough money to pay its operating expenses, there won’t be a food bank left to provide the basic food necessities for those working families struggling to make ends meet.
The West Shore Food Bank, which has the good fortune of operating out of the Langford Legion, has experienced extremely lean times this year, as regular citizens tighten their belts.
Rather than imploring readers to dig deeper to help out the cash-strapped food charities on top of the other donations individuals regularly make, why not take an page out of Occupy’s book and ask profitable companies to help, out of compassion.
There are many great corporate citizens operating in the Capital Region that make donations on a regular basis, some of which do so with little fanfare.
Hopefully those companies that have continued to thrive in recessionary times stop for a moment and consider helping a critically needed charity make it through this rough financial period.
The Mustard Seed, as all food banks, receives no government grants, surviving almost solely on the generosity of donors, so taxpayers are not paying twice to help them operate.
Helping feed people in the region’s communities will provide payback for any corporate citizen that steps up to the plate.