By Michael Hammond
A proposed foodbank in Lowertown is still months away from opening, but it already has some city relief agencies wondering about its relevance.
John David Coon, director of the Drug Education Alliance of Ottawa, says he plans to open a foodbank in the Lowertown area by January or February of next year.
His group of volunteers is currently working to find office space.
Kathy Morrell, co-ordinator of the Dalhousie Food Bank on Bronson Avenue, says Coon’s foodbank won’t affect her operation but wonders if there’s a need for one in Lowertown.
Morrell says there are already a lot of relief agencies in the Lowertown area, and another could cause an overlap of services.
Greg Joy, Ottawa Food Bank executive director, whose organization funds over 70 relief organizations in the Ottawa-Hull region, says he’s concerned Coon’s food bank will duplicate services already being provided in Lowertown.
“That’s where most of the services are,” says Joy.
“They have to prove there is a need for the service.”
Coon says he thinks there is a need in the Lowertown area for his foodbank.
He says he plans to provide emergency food relief and counselling services.
Support for the foodbank project will come from private donations and possibly the Ottawa Food Bank, Coon says.
But he says he hasn’t heard anything yet from the umbrella organization.
“We applied for assistance,” he says. “They said, ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you.’”
Joy says he hasn’t received an application from Coon as of yet.
However he adds that there is a process involved before any funding decisions are made.
“They have to prove they can support themselves,” he says.
“We don’t support operations 100 per cent.”
Joy says Coon will also have to prove his operation is helping a group which is not being cared for.
“We look for organizations filling a need that has not been filled,” he says.
“Is it duplicating a service already in place?”
Morrell says there is a need to help single, middle-aged homeless people in Lowertown and in the rest of the city.
She adds that the “transient population” in Centretown and Lowertown could benefit from another foodbank in the community.
The foodbank was originally located in the Lowertown Good Neighbour Community House, but was forced out because of a city bylaw prohibiting the city from leasing out space in the facility.
Despite this recent setback, Coon says his group is optimistic.
“The morale is high among the board of directors and the volunteers,” he says. “We’ve put a great deal of planning into the foodbank.”
Coon says his volunteer group has a solid plan in place for the foodbank.
He says it will be crucial to its success.
“Most people don’t plan to fail,” he says. “They fail to plan.”