Non-profits feeling a crunch at the pumps

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This article was published 11/03/2022 (1467 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Non-profit organizations across Westman are combating raging gas prices to continue providing their services that residents are counting on for support.

At Prairie Oasis Senior Centre, kitchen staff prepared 204 meals for Everyone Eats Brandon and an additional 40 Meals on Wheels dinners for delivery on Friday.

Jordan Dakers, food services co-ordinator for the centre, oversees meal preparation for deliveries from Monday to Friday. Dakers said the increasing cost of gasoline is straining their groceries coming in from Winnipeg. He told the Sun their supplier, Pratts Wholesale Food Service, is bumping up its fuel surcharge to have food delivered to Brandon.

A decision was made this week at the centre to raise the cost for consumers for each delivery.

“The increase is actually significant enough that we are increasing the price of each meal from $10 to $11 at the start of April,” Dakers said.

He worries for the 10 volunteers who have to pay out of their own pockets to drive and deliver each meal to Westman residents.

It’s a concern shared by Rob Lavin, executive director of Seniors For Seniors, a Westman organization that looks after the well-being of senior citizens in the community.

Lavin oversees the organization’s Dinner is Served meal program which delivers approximately 250 to 300 meals every Friday all through the work of volunteers. For $10, the program offers a full-course meal ready to warm up when its delivered.

While the increase in fuel costs have not directly affected his organization, he recognized the efforts of their eight volunteer drivers who will take up to an hour and a half of their day to keep their deliveries active.

“The volunteers donate their time and fuel, they are not paid for that,” Lavin said.

“We feel really bad about that, but we are certainly very fortunate to have local people in the community doing that. It is a huge commitment.”

Seniors For Seniors continues to buy its groceries in Brandon, Lavin said, but is looking to partner with a Winnipeg-based grocery delivery service. He said it has been difficult to maintain that consistent $10 cost per meal based on the surging cost of groceries.

Dakers and Lavin said both of their organizations are seeking grants and looking to the local community to help subsidize their swelling expenses.

At the Brandon Friendship Centre, Jeremy Monias is watching many of his organization’s workers spend more at the pumps to help keep their 26 programs offered at the centre, active.

The executive assistant said his colleague who is in charge of the centre’s community liaison and seniors programs said they have their work cut out for them, buying and delivering groceries to seniors or driving residents to doctors appointments.

“Right now we’re doing a hamper program, that in itself has a lot of driving around to do, picking up produce, meat packs,” Monias said.

The organization received funding to distribute 50 hampers to low-income families.

Monias said based on the number of properties the centre looks after, the organization’s maintenance crew spends close to $1,000 a month on fuel for each of the two vehicles they use to look after the city. He anticipates that cost could rise and place a greater strain on their programming.

“You never anticipate these kinds of things,” Monias said.

“It’s one of those things you have to adapt and go with the flow.”

Back at Prairie Oasis, Sarah Shannon, a co-ordinator for Everyone Eats Brandon, helped prepare some of the 204 meal deliveries sent out Friday. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the non-profit Everyone Eats Brandon staff prepare close to 200 meals based on their kitchen capacity.

Roughly 75 per cent of their meals are delivered by between eight to 10 volunteers, Shannon said. She shared the frustration they feel having to ask their volunteers to keep managing those increased delivery costs from their own pockets.

Ted Dzogan, chair of the board for John Howard Society, which originally administered the Everyone Eats Brandon program, said in the non-profit world, people have very little room for movement with increasing input costs based on firm budgets.

“If you’re way off on your budget, you got a problem because you can’t pay that bill,” Dzogan said.

“There is no one you can call and say, ‘prices have gone up, I need more help.’”

Compared to the private business sector, Dzogan said non-profit organizations have fewer tools with which to adapt and must be very creative with funding sources to help compensate for those shortfalls, such as increased fuel costs.

“Every time costs change, it requires a re-evaluation.”

However, he remains hopeful that Brandon’s non-profit community can manage this financial strain going forward.

» jbernacki@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @JosephBernacki