More about space, (a little) less about food

Almost every Thursday morning in New Westminster, things are buzzing at Olivet Baptist Church. Staff and volunteers from the Greater Vancouver Food Bank (GVFB) set up and distribute food, and then take the tables down – all in a three-hour window.

While this tight operation is getting food into the hands of up to 250 people in New West each week, the not-for-profit’s chief operating officer wishes it could do more.

Cynthia Boulter says the group is trying to find other spots in New West that will allow them to share food with more clients for a longer period of time.

“We’re looking actually at the moment to see if there are community agencies that would be interested in running a small food bank just to increase that accessibility,” Boulter says. “[Right now] it is a smaller window of time, so I think the logistics of it are the main challenge.”

The current model – one GVFB location hosting pick-up for three hours once a week in New Westminster – is a far cry from the previous model of 13 locations with two to two-and-a-half hour windows.

“It was brutal logistically. Getting in a truck with six or seven thousand pounds of food, unloading it, setting up in a small space, serving everybody, packing up and getting out, and doing that 12 more times a week,” she says.

Over the years, the GVFB’s buying power has become stronger, and on top of providing a variety of food to the community – up to 80% of it fresh – time is of the essence when sharing that nutrition with clients. Boulter says places offering a longer span of time would mean staff and volunteers can focus more on distribution.

“The relationship with Olivet has been great, but we are looking to see what more accessibility can we provide for clients rather than that three-hour window. With the smaller community centres, they have programs running. You can get a window, but you need to be out, and we had several agreements with these other locations, and the same is true for Olivet. They need the gym for other things, and we need to move on, so it’s a very tight ship we have to run.”

Where other municipalities like Vancouver tend to have clients who are single, New Westminster’s users trend differently.

“New West and Burnaby share a similar demographic in that they have more kids and fewer seniors than say Vancouver or the North Shore, so on average we have about 15 or 16% seniors in New West, and about 31% kids,” Boulter explains. Almost half the people who access the Vancouver location are single and 20-25% are seniors.

Some of the larger families (those with five or more members) in New Westminster tend to get their food from the Burnaby location along Winston Street. Boulter suggests that, by offering longer stretches of time, they can give clients in the community more choice.

“When you look at all the lives we cover, every three months we’re looking at 4-5,000 lives that get supported by the food bank. As we look back over the last year or so, it’s fluctuated between 4,500 and 5,500, but in general it’s between that 4-5,000 arc.”

Boulter says if anyone in the New West community has space to offer for a longer stretch of time, she’d love to hear from them. With more partnerships in New West, she says they can take some of the pressure off the volunteers and staff and provide more hours.

“ We have the food; we’re in a fortunate situation, and we have extra donations on top of our regular menu every single week, and these extra nutrition programs,” says Boulter. All that’s needed is other ways to distribute it.