By Ian Holmes

Food Recovery Program Proves to be Saving Grace

Jun 23, 2016 | 11:26 AM

While food and cash donations are slumping, the Food Recovery Program is a life-saver for Nanaimo Loaves and Fishes Community Food Bank.

Executive director Peter Sinclair says about 60 percent of the food they hand out, to an average of 3,500 people a month, is from five local grocery stores.

“Really has transformed our operations for us, historically, the summer months were all about bare shelves and not being able to provide much to people, but right now because of food recovery, we have lots of food and people are able to get the food that they need,” Sinclair said.

Sinclair hopes to add to the six hours a week that they are open at their flagship food depot on Farquar Street to get food to people more often. That comes down to having enough volunteers at the right times, he said.

The demand is still high, as Sinclair notes they had 6,478 total visits to their food depots last month, a 19 percent increase over May of last year. Loaves and Fishes has been operating at full capacity in their new 6,000 square foot Fry Street warehouse for a month and a half.

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