The Food Bank of Greater Vancouver’s hub at the head office on Winston Street is shutting down a week earlier than expected, according to Cynthia Boulter, chief operating officer for the food bank.
Other food bank hubs in Burnaby, Vancouver and North Vancouver are still operating at the moment.
The Winston Community Food hub, where people picked up their food from Monday to Friday, was slated to close from April to the beginning of July so that clients could be re-registered, according to Boulter.
Instead, it shut down as of Monday, due to changes in procedure to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The reason we did that is we have decided to provide prepacked grocery bags in all of our locations this week,” she said. “That takes manpower. We needed our staff and volunteers, and we’re actually calling in friends and friends of friends to help pack our groceries this week.”
The food bank decided to go the pre-packed route for two reasons, according to Boulter.
“It allows us to really be efficient and get people in and out of the space and also it’s a great health precaution because we don’t want clients touching food and then more clients touching food,” she said. “So we’re protecting their health and trying to have a really efficient food pick-up location for them.”
The prepackaged bags will be dispensed at the food bank’s other hubs.
The food bank is closed next week as per usual – the food bank and hubs close during the week social assistance cheques come out.
The longer closure is so that staff can assess who is in need and get those people re-registered, according to Boulter.
“To our knowledge this has never been done and our database is anything but accurate. So we are going to focus for three months here on site on re-registering clients and we are also offering other locations in other cities that we operate,” she said.
The re-registering process is to make sure they have correct information on their clients, including whether or not they meet the financial requirement, the low-income cut-off. They’ve padded the low-income cut-off by 10%, and more than that in some cases, Boulter said.
They also hope those who aren’t registered yet will contact them if they need help.
“We just want to get a handle on the clients we should be focusing on, get our message out there to other low-income people if you haven’t registered with us please come and do so, we’d love to support you,” she said
Boulter pointed out things are in flux as many of the places they have hubs – such as churches and neighbourhood houses – may not be open due to COVID-19 concerns.
“It may change given our food distribution challenges with churches and rec centres closing. But I am in touch with each of our municipalities and we’re asking them for some flexibility and support around locations to distribute food,” Boulter said. “We’ll make sure the food gets out there one way or another.”
Overall, the food bank has seen fewer people in line than usual over the past few weeks, though that is not the case at some of their locations, according to Boulter.
“We’ve seen maybe a 10% drop one week, a 10% drop another week, but also in there we’ve had locations that have never had a busier week,” she said. “As a trend, yes, we’ve seen it drop. But for those who really need the food, they’re still coming.”
Right now, the food bank needs volunteers and online donations. Many of the events that fundraise for the organization are being cancelled. They’re also losing the chance to educate the public about what they do, Boulter said.
“Food insecure people can’t afford to hoard,” she said. “So maybe don’t hoard, maybe buy what you need and then think about making a donation to help those organizations that are helping people that are not as well off as you.”
For more information on the food bank hub locations, click here.
