Sackville, N.B., food bank launching thrift store

A food bank in Sackville, N.B., is expanding and opening a thrift store.

The Sackville and District Assistance Centre – more commonly known as the Sackville Food Bank – is taking a proactive step towards long-term sustainability with the launch of its new thrift store.

Driven by a surge in demand and limited space, the food bank hopes the store will provide a much-needed boost to its operations.

“A really busy day before COVID would be 55 families. Now, we regularly get anywhere between 85 and 95 families,” said Heather Patterson, logistics coordinator and food bank volunteer.

The thrift store concept emerged from the food bank’s strategic plan.

“We always had the idea that a thrift store would make sense because we often had people trying to drop off donations to us at the food bank of household items. But we just... our food bank is very small physically, so we didn’t have room to store it,” said Kelli Taylor, president of the Sackville and District Assistance Center.

Green Party MLA for the area Megan Mitton says the thrift store will help provide stability.

“We’ve seen uncertainty in terms of funding coming from the government. Earlier this year, it looked like they were going to cut a million dollars from food bank funding, so they’re needs to be other options,” Mitton said, “I think that having this thrift store is going to offer a bit of stability and an income source to help make sure that that the important work of making sure people are fed can continue. I’ve been packing up some donations, ready to deliver them.”

One of the key drivers for the thrift store idea was the amount of discarded furniture at the end of each school year.

“When the kids would move out in the spring, there would always be furniture left behind,” Patterson said. “So lots of townspeople would go around and check out the dumpsters. In fact, my kitchen chairs I got, I think, about 15 years ago.”

The thrift store aims to open its doors on Aug. 1, capitalizing on the influx of students returning to Mount Allison University.

Taylor said the funds will help the food bank “to hire some staff for the food bank that we need... and it will also help us put money aside to get a larger building.”

She also expressed hope for the store to become self sustaining and that the store could provide employment for members of the community.

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