The Campbell River & District Food Bank is holding steady in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Manager Debbie Willis said they need donations of nonperishables, especially canned goods, soup, beans, pasta, Kraft dinner, and rice.
Willis said that while they have food on the shelves, it may not last for long.
“At the moment we have a little bit of a stockpile, and if we get nothing else in between now and the end of May, we’ll be okay but beyond that, we’re going to be a little tight,” she said.
She said it would be “wonderful” if you can donate. She said we’re all in this together, so your help today “will help the rest of us tomorrow.”
Willis said they’re taking every precaution to prevent the spread of the virus.
“When someone comes in the door, before they enter, they hand sanitize, they sign in, so we know who’s in the building and for how long they’re here and on what day, we provide masks, gloves, and aprons, there’s hand sanitizer at every station, we have bleached every square inch of the building, (and) we are not allowing any unauthorized folk into the building.”
Clients receive a pre-packaged bag and/or box outside the building, behind a prescribed area, using the six-foot perimeter space between.
Willis said the food bank is trying to follow the Health Canada mandates as closely as possible.
“We’re afraid if we don’t follow that mandate they’ll have a reason to close us and we just don’t feel we can do that right now,” Willis said. “We’re just trying to do the best we can.”
The safety precautions that go along with the pandemic has dwindled its volunteer force.
“We’ve asked most of our senior volunteers and anyone with a compromised immune system to stay home for their safety and for ours,” Willis said. “So we’ve lost about 50 per cent of our volunteer base. But we’re hanging in there, and we’ll just have to do the best we can.”
The food bank normally serves about 2,100 people a month, 35 percent of whom are kids under the age of 18 and 10 percent are seniors.
Willis expects that number to go up: “We’re also seeing people whose work has been shut down so the numbers will change I’m quite sure, and we’re just hoping we can stay open to accommodate.”
The Food Bank at 1393 Marwalk Crescent is open Monday to Friday from 9:00am to 1:00pm for donations.
Distribution days are the first three Wednesdays of each month from noon to 3:00pm.
It’s also open Monday and Friday from 11:00am to 1:00pm for smaller handouts such as produce, dairy and bread.
Call 250-286-3226. To visit its website, click here.
