The Town of Essex will be lending a helping hand to the Essex Area Food Bank to find a new home.
Lonnie Jones, the Treasurer of the Essex Area Food Bank, made a presentation to council Monday evening where he asked council for help in either finding a new home, or help with building a new location.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic the Food Bank was looking for a new location and had a verbal agreement with the former Schinkels' Meat location, however the Town sent a letter stating that there was a by-law restricting food banks in the business district.
The food bank then rented space of the lower gym area at Essex United Church where they have been located ever since, however Jones says there is a possibility they will have move soon.
Jones has asked that council look into revising the by-law which restricts them from the business district, or examine a possible site owned by the Town where they can construct a building to host the Food Bank.
A motion passed Monday will have administration look into the current by-law in place, take a look at a space in Town that the Food Bank can run out of, and look into what would be entailed to build a new location.
Jones says they don't have much longer at Essex United Church
"We realized that at the time the church building next door was in limbo as to whether they were going to continue or not. So went over and talked to the people there and said that if we were to pay so much per month, would you be able to stay open? And so we've been there for three years now, but now we're at the time where we probably have a year to a year and a half and we're finished there."
He says he doesn't understand why the by-law was put in place.
"I've never seen the by-law, I was just told about it. I don't know when that was put in, and the key thing is why? The Food Bank does not attract 'undesirables', people through the Town, it doesn't attract people who would live on the street. We do the very opposite, I mean we feed the needy, our neighbours."
Jones adds that they're willing to do a lot of the work for a new building.
"We would ask that we could have a site that the Town owns, which is serviced, and we will do the following, we'll build, we'll figure out a way to build, we'll take care of the maintenance, we'll pay the utilities, we'll make it work. But, I don't think we could afford to buy a serviced site and build a building."
The report will come back to council at a later date.
The Essex Area Food Bank is the third largest food bank in Windsor-Essex County behind the Downtown Mission and UHC.
On average they serve 80 families, or 240 people each week and spend over $11,000 each month.