Agency Spotlight: Erb West Community Centre

With support from The Food Bank of Waterloo Region, the Erb West Community Centre in Waterloo, run by Camino Wellbeing + Mental Health, offers a hamper program every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for community members living within the neighbourhood boundary. The program supports Camino Wellbeing + Mental Health’s commitment to community development in the Erb West neighbourhood, making it a better place for residents to live, learn, work, and play.

Originally, the program operated through a booth-style system, where participants waited outside for a hamper, making some selections verbally while volunteers retrieved food items from inside the community centre. After attending The Food Bank’s annual forum in 2023, staff were inspired to transition to a full-choice model. At the forum, attendees heard from keynote speaker Katie S. Martin, CEO of More Than Food Consulting, LLC, who shared how food assistance providers can shift from transactional to transformational support using The More Than Food Framework, which emphasizes maximizing participant choice.

“[Katie] talked about food autonomy and giving choice to clients and that was a direction we wanted to go in,” explains Jordan Wettlaufer, a community development worker at Camino Wellbeing + Mental Health. “[The forum] gave us more understanding of how we could run that model.”

Jordan Wettlaufer accepting a delivery from The Food Bank.

Today, the program serves about 90 households each week through a full-choice shopping model. Participants walk through several stations inside the community centre, selecting a variety of fresh, frozen, and non-perishable foods to build hampers based on their preferences and needs. Popular items include rice, pasta, tomato sauce, cereal, and halal food.

“When people have choice through a shopping model, it raises that autonomy, it raises dignity levels,” Jordan says.

Since the shift, Jordan has found the program to be far less transactional. The team now has more time to engage in meaningful conversations and build relationships with participants.

“With the model change, we have time to take folks aside, talk about different challenges, and connect them to different community services,” Jordan shares.

Food distributed at the program.

Like many food assistance programs in the Network, the Erb West Community Centre has seen a rise in demand.

“It’s a challenge helping folks from week to week—which is amazing that we can do that—but not necessarily being able to change their wider situation, knowing that bigger changes need to take place, like sufficient financial subsidy programs, living wages, more access to training and education programs, caps on food inflation, and other food sovereignty solutions,” Jordan says.

While Jordan hopes for long-term, systemic solutions to food insecurity, he’s grateful the program can provide immediate support to those in need.

“Although it’s unfortunate that people need to rely on this service, I’m glad we’re there for them—to meet that basic human need of food,” he says.

The Erb West Community Centre in Waterloo, run by Camino Wellbeing + Mental Health, is one of 54 organizations in the Community Food Assistance Network. If you’d like to help The Food Bank support Network partners like the Erb West Community Centre, visit our Get Involved section on our website to learn more about donating food, funds, or time.