The Food Bank provides a variety of foods such as canned fruits and vegetables, juice, sugar, coffee/tea, pasta, cereal, spreads, margarine, milk, bread, canned tuna/ham, ground meat, children's lunches (may contain nuts) and fresh fruit and vegetables depending on their availability and your entitlement.
The Food Bank cannot satisfy all your food needs. Food is provided to supplement the food you can buy through the income available to you. Clients are allowed to receive 3-5 days of groceries per month.
You can visit the Food Bank for groceries twice a month at present.
The Food Bank is not able to deliver food.
On every visit, you must show personal identification for all dependents living in your home. This can be a valid Health card (not photocopies), driver's license (photocopies for dependents allowed), cheque stubs (ODSP/OW), showing dependents names; school report cards with current home address. By law you are not required to show your Health card, nor can the number be recorded by us. However, if the card is offered voluntarily, it can be accepted as identification.
It depends on how busy the Food Bank is and how many clients are being registered and served. However, a good benchmark is from 30 to 45 minutes.
You should bring your identification and ID for dependents. Please bring clean, re-usable grocery bags and check all your food for any missing items before you leave the hall. Food is provided for the number of people who live in your household based on the identification you provide.
Yes, you can pick up food on behalf of friends if they are unable to visit the Food Bank in person. The person you are representing should give you a signed note authorizing you to pick up the food. Also bring along clean reusable bags and the identification your friend would have to show if they visited in person.
The Food Bank is a safe, non judgmental, user friendly environment where clients and volunteers are expected to treat each other with dignity and respect. Courtesy and politeness are required of everyone. Abusive language and behavior will not be tolerated.
The Food Bank can provide alternate foods if you have special needs such as gluten intolerance, diabetes, allergies, etc. When you are registering, please make the interviewer aware of any special food needs and the volunteers will do their best to provide alternatives to the normal food package. Of course, our ability will depend on the food we have on hand at any time.
St Joseph's Community Food Bank serves the residents of Pembroke and Laurentian Valley. If you are from outside that area, a list of Renfrew County Food Banks is available on the "HOW TO REGISTER" page of this website.
If you are a resident of Pembroke or Laurentian Valley and you need additional assistance that the Food Bank cannot provide, you can get hot lunches 7 days a week from either The Grind Coffee House at 273 Victoria Street, or St. Vincent De Paul Soup Kitchen at 18 Renfrew Street in Pembroke. Contact details are available on the "HOW TO REGISTER" page.
The Food Bank is operated out of the Holy Name Church Annex at 295 First Avenue, Pembroke Ontario. Operating hours are on Monday from 9 a.m. to noon. If Monday is a statutory holiday, the opening day is moved to Tuesday. We are also open on Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
No, the Food Bank uses church facilities (Holy Name Annex) but, this space is rented from the church on a monthly basis.
The Food Bank is not funded by the government. The only source of funds and food products are monetary and food donations from the public.
The Food Bank operates almost entirely on volunteer help. The only exceptions are the Food Purchaser and one employee in the accounting area to ensure that money and resources are managed in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
Volunteers are the backbone of the Food Bank. If you would like to volunteer, please call 613-732-3807 and leave a message. We will return your call as soon as possible.
You can donate money by dropping cash or a cheque off at the Food bank or by mailing it to St. Joseph's Community Food Bank P.O. Box 753 Pembroke, Ontario K8A 6X9.
If you would prefer to donate by making an electronic transfer from your on-line banking account, our e-mail address is stjosephsfoodbank3@gmail.com
If you would prefer to make an on-line donation through Canada Helps, please use the "DONATE NOW" button on the Home page or use the following link: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/70564
No matter how you choose to donate money, please remember to include your name and mailing address so that you can receive annual tax slips in January/February of the following year.
You can donate food by dropping it off at the Holy Name Annex at 295 First Avenue in Pembroke during normal operating hours. More details are available on the Donations page of this website.