New community funding boost will support food-sharing organizations in Nanaimo and across Vancouver Island

Sheila Malcolmson (right) said this $4 million funding will support community and Indigenous organizations to improve their infrastructure that supports their food services. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

More people in Nanaimo and across the province will have better access to healthy food options through food infrastructure projects supported by provincial funding.

On Thursday, August 22, CHLY attended a funding announcement at the Nanaimo Food Share Good Food Box packaging centre with the MLA for Nanaimo and Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, Sheila Malcolmson.

Malcolmson announced the BC government has given more than $4 million to 65 different organizations across British Columbia to strengthen food security infrastructure. These organizations help redistribute food to people who need support.

The fund, to be administered by the United Way of BC from 2023 to 2026, is part of the provincially supported 14 million-dollar Critical Food Infrastructure Fund.

At the packaging centre, Malcolmson said the provincial government wants everyone to have access to nutritious, healthy, and affordable food, during a time she said has seen increased global inflation and high grocery prices.

“If you invest in infrastructure, then you can accept and redistribute the donations of fresh, healthy, nutritious food, and put systems in place that make that possible,” Malcolmson said.

She said this $4 million funding will support community and Indigenous organizations to improve their infrastructure that supports their food services. This could mean building, buying, or improving a warehouse storage space, buying a refrigerated vehicle to transport food, or getting a walk-in cooler or commercial kitchen.

“We not only want families to have good, nutritious food at a specially accelerated time of grocery costs, we also want to recognize the bounty of food that is out there,” she said. “We want to support local farmers. We don't want to see food wasted and end up in landfill.”

Of the 65 organizations, two were chosen from the Nanaimo area along with several organizations across Vancouver Island in Victoria, Duncan, Tofino, Ladysmith, and the Comox Valley.

The Nanaimo Foodshare Society works to address hunger in the community and runs the Good Food Box program which offers boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables at a low cost. Nanaimo Foodshare received $41,000 from the funding allowing them to buy a new van to support their food share programs.

As well as the Snuneymuxw First Nations in partnership with the Loaves & Fishes Food Bank received a total of $100,000 for a new refrigerated delivery van for Loaves & Fishes Food Bank to continue to deliver food to remote communities in the north of Vancouver Island.

After the announcement, CHLY spoke with the Minister. She said there is a strong need for better access to healthy and nutritious food when grocery prices are so high.

“Our B.C. government cannot control the price of food at the grocery but we can support the food serving organizations that are receiving donations, sometimes in huge scales,” She said. “We have Loaves and Fishes who receive 50 flats of tortilla chips. How are they going to get those out to all the people that need them?”

She said in Nanaimo and across the province, she has seen volunteers step up and support these organizations.

“In Victoria, I met a chef who had recovered from addiction. He'd returned to the field and he wanted to give back to people in need. He assembled a team of sous chefs, every morning they see what kind of red peppers or cabbage have been donated, and they invent a new recipe every day for the meals that go to the school district food program,” Malcolmson said. “So we fund the food program, we fund the infrastructure, and we're super grateful to the organizations and volunteers that are the final kind of icing on that cake.”

Paula Masyk is the Executive Director for Nanaimo Foodshare. She told CHLY they applied for the funding in May after their van broke down. She said the money they received allowed them to buy a new van in the last week. 

“In the interim, we were having to rent a van every week to deliver these good food boxes, and we deliver anywhere from 400 to 800 [boxes] a week, so it was kind of a hardship for us,” Masyk said. “So now we picked this up today is the very first day that we're using it, and we're so excited to have it. We'll use it every week to deliver Good Food Boxes all around Nanaimo, but also we have another 15 programs that will also be using the van.”

She said having a van to deliver the boxes is critical to their services. She said right now they deliver boxes around Nanaimo and to Parksville and Stz'uminus.

“We buy the food wholesale, and we get it from local farms, and then we pass on the savings so that people don't have to pay retail prices who can't afford it,” Masyk said. “So it's all fruits and vegetables– people are getting about $27 to $30 worth of produce for $15. A lot of the people who get it are low-income people, but not all of them.”

Peter Sinclair, the Executive Director of Loaves & Fishes Food Bank, told CHLY that with the funding they were able to purchase a refrigerated delivery van for their North Island operations. This is something he said is critical for their operations.

“So when we acquired the Harvest Food Bank up in Port Hardy it came with two aged vehicles, which were a bit of a challenge to operate on the road,” Sinclair said. “So this funding gives us not only a vehicle that's reliable but a bigger vehicle which will allow us to pick up more food. So that has enabled us to expand our food recovery program on the North Island, from Port Hardy to also include stores in Port McNeill.”

Sinclair explained that Loaves & Fishes will do weekly deliveries to the north island with food from their operation in Nanaimo, but most of the time the food they deliver to the northern communities will come from the north island. 

He said with the new van they can collect more food but also distribute more.

“We serve a number of smaller communities on Vancouver Island, whether it be Sointula or Port Alice or Woss, and having this vehicle will help enable deliveries to those communities too,” Sinclair said.

Sinclair said their new van should be in operation by the end of next week.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.