Relief As Land O'Lakes Food Bank Location Secure Until September 2026
One of the implications of the plan to close the Cloyne office of Southeast Public Health (SEPH), is that the Land of Lakes Food Bank will have to move.
The food bank has been housed at the public health office, and in late November, food bank co-ordinator Lois Emond was notified that the space will no longer be available, as of March 1, 2026.
“This was alarming, of course,” said Emond, “as we continue to be busy serving people who need our help, and we are a small, volunteer run group to begin with.”
Addington Highlands and North Frontenac townships have both been approached, and politicians in both townships have committed to seeing what they can do, as has the Lions Club of Land O’Lakes.
The decision to close and sell off the Cloyne Public Health Office, which came to SEPH when the former Kingston Frontenac Public Health Unit was incorporated into SEPH as of January 1, 2025, was included in an SEPH staff report in November.
That report also called for the closure of the Almonte, Gananoque, Kemptville, Napanee, Perth, Picton, and Trenton offices, all of which are located in rental spaces.
At the November Board of Health Meeting, those closures were suspended, pending a staff report to be presented at the December 17 board meeting.
In a media release following the December 17 meeting, SEPH announced that all planned closures are on hold until September, 2026.
“The board received the Branch Office Report and voted to continue to have branch offices and revisit the decision in September 2026, following a review of an updated report on the rural strategy implementation and use of the branch offices.”
The matter is a bit complicated because the closure of the Cloyne branch is a separate matter than the closure of the other offices, because they are rental spaces and the Cloyne office is owned by SEPH.
Before that meeting, on December 16, Lois Emond received a call from Denise Hughes from SEPH, saying she would let her know after the December 17 meeting if there will be a change to the March 1 eviction date, as a result of any decisions being taken at that meeting.
“We have looked at a couple of other locations, including the Pineview Free Methodist Church, but they are nervous about electricity costs for all of our fridges,” said Emonds.
SEPH does not charge the food bank for the use of the space, or electricity.
As of Monday, January 5th, Emond had not heard back about whether the March 1 date is being pushed back or not.
But the following statement came in from Alexandra Mazur, Communications Officer with SEPH, at 1pm on Tuesday, January 6th, in response to an emailed inquiry from the Frontenac News, on Monday.
“The Cloyne office has not been declared surplus and, therefore, Southeast Public Health (SEPH) will continue to own it. As such, the operation of the Land O' Lakes Food Bank will remain unchanged, until the branch office discussion is revisited by the Board in September 2026.”
The email also talked about the relationship between SEPH and the food bank.
“We will keep lines of communication open with the exceptional volunteers that facilitate the food bank program in Cloyne and are committed to supporting them.”
This was welcome news to Lois Emond. When contacted late on Tuesday afternoon, she was relieved to hear that the timeframe for finding a new location has been pushed back.
“We have been busy and we are getting busier,” Emond said. “Even in our existing space, we are running out of space for boxes on Friday’s, which is our pick-up day. We are looking at a second pickup day on Wednesday’s, but we have a limited number of volunteers, and adding an extra day will be a stretch for us.”
The food bank does a hunger count each March. The count was 54 in 2021, 113, in 2023, and has only risen from there.
“The need is not dropping,” said Emond.
Land O’Lakes Community Services received requests for food bank support (613-336-8934) but the food bank is an independent not for profit enterprise
