2020 came with many financial and logistical challenges for Southeast Helping Hands but Board Chair Hank Klassen says they are actually more efficient because of it.

Klassen says donations rolled in just fine this past year but many of the changes the foodbank had to make to follow COVID-19 restrictions cost money which did put them in a bit of a tough spot. He notes their entire process had to be revamped.

(Photo credit: Island Breeze) Tessa Masi from Island Breeze volunteers at the foodbank with some of her team members"We had to change the way we service our clients because we could only have two families in at one time. They couldn't really come in. They couldn't touch any of the food and we had to put up a safety board with plexiglass and kept our workers on one side and our clients on the other side. It was a little trying for a while but we managed to actually make it very streamlined. It is actually working better than the old system."

Klassen says many of their normal volunteers are seniors that had good reason to be concerned about the risks of COVID-19 and many decided to stay safe at home. Fortunately, he says Island Breeze stepped up to help in a big way this year.

"They came along and said 'what can we do?' They now come in prior to the hand-out and they fill the bags with non-perishables, so on the day of we just have to put in the perishable stuff and take it down the line. We cut our delivery time probably by about an hour and a half. I don't think we will change back because it works much too nice this way."

With their delivery process streamlined and with strong volunteer support, Klassen says they are confident 2021 can be a good year at the foodbank.

"We got enough financial support now to start us off in the new year so we thinking very positively with the way things happened even if it was very difficult in the beginning."