A note from Craig Edwards, Director of Operations
“Industry donations are what enable us to give a larger quantity of fresh and healthy food to our clients and Community Agency Partners. They make up the largest amount of food we receive yearly.
One of my main goals for this year is to increase the number of pre-consumer donations from our industry partners. Building relationships with retailers, manufacturers and farmers will be an important piece of the puzzle.
Did you know that 473,000lbs of food that we received last year were damaged or expired? Your pre-consumer food donation will make a huge difference in helping us reduce waste, and maximize our resources!”
The Superstore Champion Truck
Loblaws — The Real Canadian Superstore donated an unbelievable 440,109 pounds of fresh, nutritious food to the Food Bank since July this year! Superstore is one of the only retailers who donate pre-consumer products to us, this means that our clients are getting high-quality foods that haven’t even hit the store shelves yet!
A large amount of cheese, proteins, fruits, vegetables, and dairy products go to our clients through our distribution locations weekly. Did you know that we also support more than 90 Community Agency Partners? In December, we served 8,500 clients directly, and around 14,000 through our partners—this is more than the capacity of Roger Arena!
To celebrate Superstore’s generous, committed support, we named one of our trucks the ‘Superstore Champion Truck’. Your organization could be next!
The Ken Witzke Farm
Ken Witzke—a farmer, a single child, an engineer, a volleyball player, a husband, a father, an adventurer, and a supporter of the Food Bank for over 30 years.
Before Ken took over the family farm when his parents were starting to age, it was called the Lake Country Orchards. Ken’s father was the oldest son in a family of 18 children and a German immigrant from Poland arriving in Canada in 1929. So, growing up, Ken had a lot of empathy and understanding for people who come from hardship.
Ken expanded the farm throughout the years and eventually farming over 400 acres of tree fruits. Now, with the support of his wife Linda, his son Greg, and the many long term hardworking employees, they pick, pack and ship to markets across North America, Europe and Asia, as well as our local domestic market.
“Keeping the fruits moving, while fresh and of high quality is a priority to me. The GVFB is part of this equation and I hope my fruits that arrive in BC communities meet the needs of the nutrition for people who need food support.”
We have distributed more than 550,000 lbs of fresh, local fruits from Ken’s farm since as early as we kept count. Thank you, Ken, for your empathy and kindness!
Thank you to all of our industry partners for the support!
If you are a retailer, wholesaler, manufacturer or farmer who wants to partner with us to provide healthy food to those in need, please contact Alex Beyer at [email protected] – we would love to hear from you.
