A Nanaimo community food bank is one step closer to developing a new food distribution warehouse with the help of the city.
The city of Nanaimo has purchased a property on East Wellington Road at a cost of $1.3 million and will be considering a 30-year lease to Loaves and Fishes community food bank.
“We are incredibly grateful to the city of Nanaimo for purchasing the land for our much-needed warehouse expansion,” said Peter Sinclair, executive director of the community food bank. “By investing in the Loaves and Fishes infrastructure we will be able to provide an increasing abundance of food for people in need throughout our community for years to come.”
The half a hectare property is currently a vacant lot, used by Loaves and Fishes as outdoor storage for their Empties 4 Food program.
With the lease on the property, the food bank is hoping to build a 25,000 square foot warehouse to expand its Food 4U Food Recovery program, which collects surplus food from local grocery stores and redirects it to people in need.
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Loaves and Fishes has been operating out of their central warehouse on Fry Street since 2014, but it’s become too small for their operations.
“Loaves and Fishes does excellent work in our community providing a much-needed service to a growing segment of our society,” said Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog. “Council was very supportive of the request from Loaves and Fishes to partner with them on this project.”
Council will discuss the property lease on Dec. 20, 2021.
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Jasmine Bala
