Second Mile Food Bank

One of the oldest food banks in New Brunswick needs a new home.

Second Mile Food Bank serves East Moncton and all of Dieppe.

“We started over 40 years ago, with a couple of people sitting around after Thanksgiving dinner, feeling very thankful and grateful for all of the blessings that they had. Conversations shifted to other people who had needs, and they challenged each other, and that was born the very first food bank in Moncton,” Board Chairman Kevin Rogers explained.

He added that their current location on Lewisville Road is getting crowded.

“We’re in a small commercial space. We’ve got a great landlord, and it’s been a great home for us, but we’re now serving about four times as many people as we were. We don’t have the parking, we don’t have the room inside, and we don’t have the storage space for the food. We don’t have a workplace for our volunteers. We need larger freezers, we need larger coolers, we just need a lot more space,” Rogers stressed.

He hopes to find a new building between 4000 and 5500 square feet, with bay doors to unload orders and donations more easily. Rogers would also like space for more client outreach services and he also hopes to add a community kitchen.

“We’d love to be able to teach people to cook. We’d love to be able to take advantage of some of the other opportunities that are out there, but we just need to find the right space,” Rogers said.

With the increase in demand, the Second Mile Food Bank has found other means to stock the shelves. They now purchase food instead to help maintain a balanced diet for clients, but Rogers says they need a place to put it.

“We buy milk from the local dairy, we buy butter, we buy eggs, we buy produce. We support local farmers, and we buy local produce, and then we use that to give out. We also hold food drives as well,” Rogers explained.

If you’re aware of a space that would be perfect for the Second Mile Food Bank, you can reach out on their Facebook page.