Clients of the Salvation Army's Flour Mill community food bank recently discovered a range of new products waiting for them on the shelves, including cassava flour, red palm oil and a wide array of spices and seasoning packages. The organization used grant money from a 2023 Food Banks Canada grant to better serve newcomers from countries in Africa and Asia. "We don't always necessarily have the kind of foods that some of our visitors were accustomed to having in their home country," said Miya Bradburn, one of the community ministry's officers and pastors at the Salvation Army Sudbury Community Church and Community Ministries.
"We were hoping to be able to access some of the foods that would make their cooking at home perhaps a little more like what they are accustomed to – or maybe some things that they have been missing." The organization has seen a growing number of clients from Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, Bradburn said. 'It makes us feel not to miss home' Moreover, clients who previously used the food bank every few months are now returning every month as rising food prices continue to put pressure on families.
The food bank surveyed its members to find out what products they'd like to have access to, she said. It then purchased the items at shops such as Miteo's Afro-Caribbean Food Store and Beauty Supply and Bombay Spice. "They brought us some African [stuff], and we love it .
.. because it makes us feel not to miss home," said Be.
