By Cecilia Nasmith

Northumberland Eats was an innovative measure to counteract local food insecurity in its three-month pilot period.

Community Services Manager Sarah Tanner's report on the initiative won plaudits at the July meeting of Northumberland County council's Social Services standing committee.

It was funded originally from Social Services Relief Funding, rounds one and two, when they were looking at food insecurity and at how the might reach and support people in need.

“There are some great food banks, a wonderful food distribution system, but COVID changed things a little bit,” Tanner said.

“We had this investment from the province looking at COVID relief, and there was also a call out to look at how we might invest in local businesses that were really feeling the pinch because they were locked down and closed.”

It was run as a pilot program from Dec. 21, 2020, to March 31, 2021. The county worked with a variety of social-service providers who would be able to reach those in need, suffering food insecurity for any reason from loss of a job to homelessness. The list included libraries, police and paramedic services, social-service agencies, churches, Early Years centres, food banks, the YMCA and United Way. They would provide these vouchers, good at Northumberland businesses that ranged from fruit-and-vegetable shops to cafes and diners in every municipality (with the sole exception of Brighton).

It was left up to each distributor how to give out the vouchers. The police wanted $5 vouchers to give to people they met on the streets. Similarly, EMTs wanted single $5 or $10 vouchers to provide to people in crisis. Child-care centres wanted $20 and $30 worth of vouchers at a shot to support families. Shelters wanted to use them on a daily basis to help departing clients through the day

Every age group was helped, singles and families as well. The highest single age group receiving the vouchers was young people.

“Nearly everybody we were able to support did not have income from employment. Most were receiving some form of social assistance,” Tanner said.

Vouchers were in $5 and $10 denominations, and no cash was involved. If someone had a $10 voucher and spent $9.50, for example, that was the extent of the transaction.

There were 3,518 $5 vouchers issued (1,671 of which were redeemed) and 2,480 $10 vouchers issued (1,501 of which were redeemed).

Vouchers redeemed supported local businesses to the tune of $26,000 over a three-month period, she said.

“A critical time to do it,” committee member Bob Sanderson noted approvingly.

There was positive feedback from users about being able to have some choice in their diet, being able to buy something special for their children (like a kind of fruit) that they couldn't normally afford, being able to surprise their families with a pizza.

And on the other end, it helped local businesses and fostered the job security of their staffs.

The pilot program has expired, and they are working with Northumberland United Way to get it running on a more sustainable basis.

“I have to say this has been very, very successful and very well received in the community,” Tanner declared.

Sanderson asked what had been their biggest challenge.

“I would say the biggest challenge was getting businesses to believe it was going to work,” she replied.

Fortunately, she found that when one business participated, they were likely to recommend it to another business, and this kind of word-of-mouth really helped.