Food bank on the move

Central Okanagan Community Food Bank’s new location will be more like a grocery store

Kelowna’s new food bank will feature a grocery-store-like marketplace designed to reduce the stigma of using a food bank.

“This is an innovative model,” said Central Okanagan Community Food Bank executive director Lenetta Parry.

“This building does not look like a traditional food bank. It has an incredible storefront, so we’re taking the opportunity to do food banking differently.”

On Thursday, the food bank held news conferences at both its existing 10,000-square-foot location downtown on Ellis Street and the new 19,000-square-foot digs at 2310 Enterprise Way, in the former Heritage Office Furnishings building.

The shuttling between the two locations was meant to illustrate how the food bank has outgrown its downtown home and how the new building will usher in a new era.

“We’re still working the details out,” said Parry.

“But I first saw the grocery storemarket model for a food bank at Willow Creek Church in Chicago and thought it would work here, too, to energize clients, staff and volunteers.”

The criteria for clients to access aid will remain the same.

However, Parry envisions the marketplace, complete with aisles and shelves, coolers and freezers like a grocery store, will allow clients to shop for some of the items.

There will still be some traditional food bank service with clients coming up to a counter to receive a box or hamper of food.

While the food bank has already bought the bigger building for $3.45 million and is using the warehouse space, the marketplace and services for clients won’t be offered until after renovations have been done, likely in the fall.

In the meantime, clients will still be served at the food bank on Ellis Street.

Besides offering more room, the Enterprise Way address is touted as more centrally located for clients who arrive by car, those catching a ride or taking the bus.

The food bank started to outgrow its Ellis Street location three years ago.

The food bank serves an average of 3,000 to 4,000 people a month, of which one-third are children and 12 per cent are seniors.

In addition to that core, the food bank also distributes food to 40 local non-profit organizations like halfway houses, group homes and charities.

As well, the Central Okanagan Community Food Bank has become one of Food Bank Canada’s national food-sharing hubs.

That means about once a month the food bank receives a shipment of 30,000 to 50,000 pounds of food from big processors, such as Kraft and Heinz.

The product is sorted, warehoused and redistributed to 20 other smaller food banks throughout the Okanagan, Shuswap and Kootenays.

Much of that warehousing is now being done at the new location because the space was ready and it has two docks where tractor-trailer trucks can be unloaded directly into the warehouse.

In the past, to handle that extra volume, the food bank had to rent four extra warehouse spaces in West Kelowna and Kelowna.

The Enterprise Way premises will allow the food bank to have all operations under one roof and dispense with the expensive additional leases.