Tuesday, November 22, 2011 Surrey/North Delta Leader 11
THE CITY’S CHANGING FACE
New offerings at the Surrey Food Bank Food preference, language and diversity transforming both clients and social services by Boaz Joseph
R
ecently, the Surrey Food Bank (SFB) purchased two skids of canned chick peas at a cost of $3,500. The problem: The clients that food was intended for aren’t biting. “They’re giving it back,” says operations manager Rick Benson. “They want the real (dry) chick peas, not in a can. They keep handing it back.” The purchase, well-intended as it was, is part of an ongoing learning process for the food bank as it deals with a changing clientele. The transformation began some years back, when the food bank began to replace staples such as pork and beans with beans in tomato sauce, and more recently chick peas, to agree to the dietary restrictions of many new Muslim residents who do not eat pork. The SFB, which provides food for more than 14,000 people each month, has documented 37 different languages while registering new clients. The diversity is so prevalent now that the food bank has written its pick-up guidelines in 16 languages, says executive director Marilyn Herrmann. “We see people coming from countries that I haven’t even heard of.” If they can’t communicate, some clients will bring in relatives – sometimes children – to help with translation. Many of the newcomers are from East
Africa (mainly Somalia and Ethiopia) and Nigeria, says Feezah Jaffer, coordinator of volunteer resources. Some are also from Iraq, Iran and the Philippines. While some immigrants in Surrey, notably from India, don’t use the food bank because they rely on their families or temples, people from other countries or smaller communities have little choice. One woman who has lived in Canada for less than two months told Herrmann that since her family has no income or immediate job prospects, they must rely on the charity to survive. Herrmann says many new immigrants don’t know about other support services such as Progressive Intercultural Services Society (PICS) or DIVERSEcity Community Resources Society. “It takes time for them to find their way.” The food bank has also made efforts to organize a community kitchen (with the help of DIVERSEcity) to help immigrant families learn how to make meals from the food in their hampers. Some don’t know what to make out of a can of tuna, explains Herrmann. Others are confused by canned food in general, but they do appreciate fresh BOAZ JOSEPH / THE LEADER fruits and vegetables. Many are vegetarians, says Kris Hay- Many newcomers to Canada are not familiar ward, who works the registration desk. with canned food.
Lentils and rice are popular, and chick peas continue to be purchased by the SFB. Herrmann says the SFB staff of 13 (assisted by volunteers) is more diversified than it used to be, which helps serve clients better. One group of volunteers recently branched off with their own Muslim Food Bank (www. muslimfoodbank.com) in Newton to serve clients in Surrey with more specific dietary needs. (Some of its organizers still volunteer with the SFB.) Herrmann says she works hard to make no assumptions about the history of each immigrant, nor how long it should take them to settle in. She was recently humbled upon learning that one man she talked to was a medical doctor in the Philippines. He had to start from square one in Canada with an $8 per hour job. Of the 851,000 people who used a food bank in Canada last March, 11 per cent were immigrants or refugees, according to the 2011 HungerCount, an annual survey published on Nov. 1 by Food Banks Canada. The number of immigrant clients is 18.5 per cent in large cities, according to the survey. A total of 90,193 people were served by B.C. food banks in March 2011, down 4,166 from the previous year, but well above the 67,237 from the same month in 2001. For more information, visit www.surreyfoodbank.org or www.cafb-acba.ca
bjoseph@surreyleader.com
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