Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's a huge issue. Housing is an increasing percentage of everyone's expenses monthly. Income hasn't risen by a similar percentage, so people who are struggling now have to struggle with whether they should buy food to feed themselves or try to keep a roof over their head.

Finance committee  I would say there would be better support for children. I don't know that it would alleviate the need for the food bank, but it certainly would make sure that kids weren't hungry in schools. Greener Village is also involved in school food. We work in partnership with Food Depot Alimentaire in Moncton to provide breakfast programs to 18 area schools where we provide fresh fruit, snacks, milk, eggs—breakfast materials.

Finance committee  Thank you for the opportunity to comment. Yes, there are so many stories that have a sort of gut punch when you hear them, but there is also so much hope and beauty in stories as well. I'll share the story of a young lady who actually sits on my board of directors, who was a single mom of two kids and was working two jobs and still couldn't make ends meet.

Finance committee  How do you, in just a few short minutes, explain the scope of what organizations like Greener Village do? Greener Village very much started as a food bank providing food services and cans of food and helping people who were in need. That was in 1983. We have actually made the evolutionary jump one time, and that's when we bought a new property in 2012.

Finance committee  Thank you for that. It's really hard to speak about it because it's challenging, but one story I will share because it's poignant. A senior citizen mentioned that they're halving their medications: “The choice was rent or the cost of the medication that I'm taking, so I'll just take half the dosage, and that way I can stretch that prescription twice as long.”

Finance committee  Thank you for that. Mr. Chair, the—

Finance committee  That's a wonderful question, Mr. Chair. I think we can learn from other governments that are progressive in the world. France would be a good example in terms of what they've said: You can't throw out food, because it doesn't look good. They've kind of removed that as an option.

Finance committee  Thank you for that question. The reality is that the demographic is switching. We see in our general scheme that we're now up to over one-fifth who are full-time employees. They've done everything fairly well: They've secured employment, they're working hard to feed their families and they're still not making it.

Finance committee  Thank you for that question. It's a question that comes up a lot in our sector. I sit on an innovation committee for Food Banks Canada, where we're trying to dream about what the food bank network will look like. We're about 40 years in from when most food banks were created in the early eighties, and we're asking what it will look like in 40 years.

Finance committee  That's an excellent question. I don't think our system is quite so blatant with it, but I'm sure the same sort of thing does exist in some fashion. We are much more concerned about the beauty of food, the presentation of food and the price of food than we are about the health and the accessibility of food for the people who need it.

Finance committee  I wish I could say yes, but the reality is that the answer is no. What it has meant for us is a significant increase in investment in staffing, in food and in facilities to be able to continue to meet that demand. It has led to our needing to accomplish more fundraising. We've had to become much more intentional in speaking with our community, in approaching large funders, in writing grant applications and in approaching foundations.

Finance committee  Yes. There is a small grant available to food banks from our provincial government to help cover operating expenses. Unfortunately that grant, for us, equates to less than 5% of what we need to operate—not even including the food donations side of things—so it's certainly not the government's help that enables us to continue to operate.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for that question. I think the challenge we're seeing is that there has been an increase in both the depth and breadth of food insecurity, meaning that we are seeing significantly more people in our community who are relying on our food bank to make ends meet.

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Greener Village is honoured to contribute to the vital discussions concerning pre-budget consultations in advance of the 2024 budget. Greener Village is a community-driven organization dedicated to addressing hunger and promoting food security in the greater Fredericton area.