Rankin Inlet (Mar 31/03) - The Deacon's Cupboard food bank has not had much trouble feeding the hungry since it opened about six years ago.

Rev. Dan Collado has seen the Deacon's Cupboard food bank in Rankin Inlet benefit tremendously from its Thrift Store operation under the same roof. - Darrell Greer/NNSL photo

"The generosity of the community in keeping the Deacon's Cupboard well stocked has worked well in Rankin since we started," says Rev. Dan Collado of the Glad Tidings Fellowship, which runs the food bank in space donated by the Anglican Church.

"It's been nice not having to put a lot of effort into fundraising in order to be able to help out people in need in our community."

Rev. Collado says requests to the Deacon's Cupboard reached an all-time high in 2002 with about 270 food boxes handed out.

He says the need has fluctuated since the food bank opened in 1997-98, from just under to just over 200 food boxes each year. He says the Deacon's Cupboard is on pace in 2003 to match last year's numbers.

The Deacon's Cupboard runs seven months a year, from early October until the end of April.

Clothes had to be shipped elsewhere

Collado says the Deacon's Cupboard has remained self-supporting between personal donations and the Thrift Store side of its operations.

He says people in the community have always been generous in donating clothes to the Thrift Store.

"On more than one occasion we've had to ship clothing off to other locations because we had so much here.

The Thrift Store brings in good revenue and we use the vast majority of that money to keep the food bank stocked.

"The only other use of finance is to periodically fix up the place, adding shelves, fixing the furnace, those types of things."

The Deacon's Cupboard has never dealt with country food, although it has been discussed in the past.

Collado says corporate help has also gone a long way towards ensuring the food bank's stability.

"Since our inception, First Air has donated 500 kilograms of free freight per season for the food bank and we're currently discussing raising that somewhat.

Overall, we're quite pleased with how solid the operation has been since we first started."