BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH OUR NEW GARDEN
We have exciting FRESH news to share – we’ve started a garden for our Community Agency Partners (CAPs)!
Since June, our team has grown a variety of delicious greens and herbs such as kale, lettuce, basil, cilantro, parsley, beets, carrots, kohlrabi and more. Our garden is a true community effort, with donors such as ReFeed Farms, Westcoast Seed, and Cloverdale Paint donating their time and products to help this project thrive.
Tucked in behind our Vancouver CAP Market, our garden creates the perfect environment for our team to connect with our CAPs about food, recipes, gardening, and other fun initiatives! At this stage, many of our glorious plants are flourishing and able to provide a selection of delicious and fresh supplemental greens for our CAPs. Since launching, we’ve given out over 250 bags of greens!
Randy, a chef at the South Vancouver Neighbourhood House, was delighted to take a bag of fresh herbs and greens to toss into his weekly meals. With the greens, he crafted a delicious green slaw alongside breaded fish for their senior meal program.
Without our donors, we wouldn’t have created this fantastic new opportunity to grow delicious supplemental greens for our Community Agency Partners. Thank you for your support!
Left: Our Community Garden, a tomato harvest, a meal prepared by South Vancouver Neighbourhood House using fresh herbs from the garden.
YOUR DONATION MAKES A DIFFERENCE, NO MATTER THE SIZE
Eve, now retired, donated to the GVFB in late June.
The shock she felt after seeing her weekly grocery bill double was immediately replaced with heartache as she imagined the number of families unable to feed their children.
“I was a single mother on welfare in the late 1970s, and I didn’t have access to any programs to help me get back on my feet. It was hard for me back then, but I can’t imagine what it must be like for parents in similar situations today,” Eve shares.
Eve knows all too well the feeling a struggling parent must go through, so she donated in hopes of helping at least one family from going hungry.
“My donation may not be much, and I wish I could give more, but my heart is in it, and I love the work that the Food Bank does for the community.”
Every donation, regardless of size, makes a difference to the 13,000 people we support each month. We extend our deepest thanks to our community of donors during these economically challenging times.
FARM-TO-(CLIENT’S) TABLE AT THE GVFB
We’ve always prioritized providing our clients with fresh and healthy food, and we’re excited to share that we purchase most of our fruits and vegetables from local farmers!
We have ongoing partnerships with farmers across BC who have, for years, donated and fulfilled our orders with the finest produce our province has to offer. Some of our partnerships include Winset Farms in Abbotsford and Delta, Rai Produce in Osoyoos, and Heppell’s Potato Corporation in Surrey!
From the fields to directly into the hands of our clients, the fresh food we distribute is grown with the love and care they deserve.
Over 60% of the food we provide to our clients is fresh, and this could only be made possible because of YOU!
“GOING TO THE FOOD BANK MAKES ME FEEL LESS PANICKED.”
Ruth is a kindhearted 67-year-old client from Vancouver.
She worked in childcare her whole life, and despite her love for her work, she could not make any significant savings with her low salary.
Ruth has always struggled with a restricted diet that limited her from eating everyday food items such as dairy, gluten and nightshades. She was so thrilled to discover the Greater Vancouver Food Bank because there is always protein and fresh vegetables to take home.
“Going to the Food Bank makes me feel less panicked. I would be in a lot of financial trouble without it. Now I don’t have to worry about affording my meals!”
Even though she hasn’t been a GVFB client for long, Ruth expresses her most profound appreciation to all the donors for thinking of people like herself.
CLIENT REGISTRATIONS ARE AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH. YOUR DONATION HAS MADE OUR SUPPORT POSSIBLE!
The expensive cost of living has become the primary reason for our clients to seek support for our services. This past September, we registered a staggering 904 individuals for food support. Compared to the start of the year, we were registering around 500 individuals per month.
Despite the alarmingly high increase in demand, we have been able to keep up with the demand thanks to you, our generous supporters. In addition to providing food support to more people, we are distributing more food than ever. In the past 12 months, we distributed 8.1 million pounds food healthy and nutritious food to those in need across Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster and the North Shore.
You are making a difference!
