The shelves at the Petrolia Food Bank are low this fall, even after the traditional Thanksgiving donation bump.

Food bank manager, Sandra Hartman, says throughout the summer and into the fall there has not been enough donated food to meet the needs of the community. “We’ve had to purchase a lot more than we normally do,” she says as she looks at several skids of pasta and sauce she recently purchased for the winter months. “We purchased food all through the summer, mostly because the kids are home from school.

“Almost weekly I had to buy cereal, pasta, side dishes, canned veggies; pretty much everything.”

Hartman says even with the use of social media such as Facebook to attract new donors, the amount of food coming in the door simply isn’t supplying the need. “The donations are not as much as they once were.”

There have been some bright spots. The Farm Credit Corporation’s Drive Away Hunger event in local schools brought 2,000 pounds of food to Petrolia along with much needed cash.

And Hartman says the pasta and sauce she was unloading recently came at a very good price. She expects that will help get the families they serve through to Christmas. Then, she expects donations for the Christmas For Everyone Campaign will help replenish the storerooms.

In the meantime, Hartman says could use items for personal hygiene and babies – such as diapers and baby wipes –  along with the regular staples. “If you stock it in your house, odds are people here are going to use it.”