One Scarborough neighbourhood, Malvern, gets a much-needed food bank this week. But in another, there's still no place nearby to turn.The Malvern Healthy Community Cupboard opens Friday, Dec. 14 at the Art Burke Housing Cooperative on Washburn Way.
Agincourt Community Services (ACS) set up a partnership to run it, Fridays from 5:30 to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., after agency staff noticed Malvern residents were making long treks to the ACS food bank at 4155 Sheppard Avenue near Midland Avenue.
"There's a need all over Scarborough - Malvern's just one part of it," Sandy Kooblal, the agency's community co-ordinator, who said the area has many working poor and single-parent families in danger of losing their housing.
"They often have to make the difficult choice between feeding their kids and rent," she said.
Though food banks are short-term solutions to bigger problems, clients at the Community Cupboard may be introduced to groups that can help improve the quality of their lives, Kooblal said.
It's hard to find space or other resources for food banks to cover the spread-out neighbourhoods of Scarborough.
For many months, Hassan Dabbous of the Eglinton Kennedy Community Against Poverty has searched, so far without success, for a place to house a food bank near Kennedy Road and Eglinton Avenue.
It's something many poor families living near the intersection desperately need, Dabbous said.
"I'm looking every day," he said. "Any access, any room."
Dabbous, who can be contacted at 416-267-0237, worked in the area's last food bank, which closed some years ago. The space is now a Red Cross drop-in centre at Church of the Epiphany where only emergency food for the homeless is kept.
Though supported by the Malvern Neighbourhood Action Team, a group of local agencies, the Community Cupboard is eager to accept food or monetary help. "We're totally dependent on volunteers and donations," Kooblal said.
Anyone who needs food or can donate something should call 416-763-9933, she said, while prospective volunteers or anyone who wants to know more about the ACS food bank on Sheppard can call 416-321-6912.
Another food bank in Malvern is open 2 to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday afternoons at the Muslim Welfare Centre on McLevin Avenue; call 416-335-9994 for appointments.