{"id":8643,"date":"2025-05-01T11:02:43","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T14:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=8643"},"modified":"2025-05-01T13:43:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T16:43:54","slug":"region-grants-queens-county-food-bank-rent-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/05\/01\/region-grants-queens-county-food-bank-rent-relief\/","title":{"rendered":"Region grants Queens County Food Bank rent relief"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Shelly Panczyk is the chairwoman of the Queens County Food Bank in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Queens County Food Bank won\u2019t have to worry about its rent for the next four years as Region of Queens councillors voted this week to give the group a rent subsidy.<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of its budget talks, councillors agreed to the food bank\u2019s request for an annual grant of $15,500 to cover the rent at its Main Street location in Liverpool.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Shelly Panczyk, chair of the Queens County Food Bank, told QCCR on Thursday that \u201cit\u2019s a wonderful thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat helps us out because it will give us more working capital to purchase food,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been back and forth with the last council. This is probably our fourth time trying to get something and this council has done it. And I’ve got to give them a good clap around, because they\u2019ve done a good thing. And I think people will step up and be aware that this council is a workable council.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Before the food bank was forced out of a derelict municipal property in 2019 and began leasing space on Main Street, it paid no rent. Demand for their services has grown, as food costs have risen and donations have plummeted by about 50 per cent.<\/span><\/p>\n

About 240 families a month use the Liverpool group’s services.<\/p>\n

Food bank representatives appealed to councillors<\/a> at their March 25 meeting for rent relief after the organization was hit with a $10,000 bill to fix its freezer. It\u2019s also committed to begin food pantries for elementary and high school students throughout Queens County.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayor Scott Christian said councillors are trying to make more room in the region’s budget to help residents on low or fixed incomes. Council is also considering expanding the region’s low-income property tax exemption program.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard when you\u2019re an organization like Queens County Food Bank when you don\u2019t have certainty of available resources, like you’re constantly competing for available grants,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“\u2029Their board members did a good job of articulating the financial need that that group has and those are the type of investments I think this council likes to make, so I’m pleased to see if we spend $20 to $25,000 on the low-income tax exemptions and another $15,500 on the food bank, again, it’s challenging, and we need to make sure that the province pays their fair share as it relates to community wellness, but from my perspective, that’s money well spent from the municipality.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Council has another budget meeting scheduled for Tues., May 6 at 6 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/foodbankrentstorymay125.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Queens County Food Bank won\u2019t have to worry about its rent for the next four years as Region of Queens councillors voted this week to give the group a rent subsidy. As part of its budget talks, councillors agreed to the food bank\u2019s request for an annual grant of $15,500 to cover the rent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[1245,543,948,2736,39,1246,1833,49,156,24,1574,1745,2985,226,539],"class_list":["post-8643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-budget","tag-council","tag-food-bank","tag-food-insecurity","tag-liverpool","tag-municipal-budget","tag-non-profit-groups","tag-queens-county","tag-queens-county-food-bank","tag-region-of-queens","tag-regional-council","tag-rent","tag-rent-subsidy","tag-scott-christian","tag-shelly-panczyk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8643"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8649,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8643\/revisions\/8649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}