By Canadian Press

Non-profit to get new warehouse to store recovered food in Nanaimo, B.C.

May 18, 2023 | 12:55 PM

NANAIMO, B.C. — The British Columbia government is kicking in $7 million to go toward building a warehouse in Nanaimo for a local non-profit that distributes food to people in need across Vancouver Island. 

Sheila Malcolmson, minister of social development and poverty reduction, told the news conference where she made the announcement that food price inflation has put intense pressure on both individuals as well as non-profits that provide food bank services.

Malcolmson said Nanaimo’s Loaves and Fishes Food Bank works to distribute food in the city and to remote communities, providing goods that would otherwise end up in landfills through its food recovery program. 

She said the work is crucial to food security on the island, especially in remote communities, and a new 25,000-square-foot facility on lands leased at a negligible cost by the City of Nanaimo would allow the organization to scale up its offerings. 

Loaves and Fishes executive director Peter Sinclair said the new warehouse would help solve a problem of abundance rather than scarcity, allowing the group to accept more food donated by grocery stores that would otherwise go to waste. 

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Sinclair said the new facility is critical to expanding their operations, but acknowledged that the provincial funding is not enough to complete it.

He said the group is working with the federal government in hopes of securing an additional $5 million.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 18, 2023. 

The Canadian Press