Loaves and Fishes Community Food Bank executive director Peter Sinclair receives food donations during an important transition period for the non-profit agency. (Submitted photo)

By Ian Holmes

food bank challenges

Nanaimo food bank strained, operations reduced during COVID-19 crisis

Mar 19, 2020 | 12:33 PM

NANAIMO — Donations are down and operations forced to scale back as the Nanaimo food bank braces for increased demand.

Peter Sinclair, executive director of the Loaves and Fishes Community Food Bank, told NanaimoNewsNOW they’ve reduced food distribution sites down from 11 to only their Farquar St. and Generations Church locations.

The amount of food normally donated from local grocery stores has nosedived recently.

“We’re attributing this to people going to the store and stocking up, which means our typical sources of food through our Food Recovery Program have seen a reduction.”

Sinclair expected the panic-buying tenancies currently depleting grocery resources will level off, which should help the situation in their warehouse and food stores return to normal.

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Monetary donation are solely needed, since tailored food pallets can be purchased to minimize handling and ease the burden on a small number of volunteers.

Those volunteers are now handing out packages of food to clients for sanitary purposes as opposed to allowing them to assemble their own.

“We’re really looking at how can we set up a system that gets food to people quickly and utilizes the least amount of people possible,” Sinclair said.

“We’re expecting for the demand to increase and we’re committed to do everything we can to ensure people have food to eat.”

Nanaimo Loaves and Fishes Community Food Bank serves 3,000 to 3,500 people monthly, benefiting roughly 1,800 households.

The Farquar St. depot is open Monday to Friday. The lone satellite depot in operation for the time being is Generations Church on Saturday’s.

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes