A program providing food to hundreds of people in New Westminster each week will be coming to an end in February – one of two food-security programs in town that are struggling with logistical and financial issues.
The Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society has written to Olivet Baptist Church stating it will stop distributing food out of the church in February 2024. It said the decision to cease its weekly food distribution on Wednesdays at Olivet was made after an extensive review of the ongoing challenges presented by the location.
“We will distribute from the church into February 2024, with the last day being Wednesday, Feb. 14,” said Cynthia Boulter, chief operating officer, in a Nov. 2 letter to the church. “Warehouse week is the following week, and then as of the week of Feb. 26 we will be encouraging clients to visit our Burnaby location. … Clients will receive more food given our ability to offer an often-unlimited amount of donated, add-on menu items directly from the warehouse.”
To compensate for this change, Boulter said the society will be adding additional distribution hours in its Burnaby warehouse, which is located four SkyTrain stops away from New West.
On Monday, council received a staff report that included an update on issues related to two food-security programs serving New Westminster.
Council approved a recommendation directing staff to meet with the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society and the Don’t Go Hungry food program to better understand the issues they’re facing and to explore possible actions to minimize potential impacts on the clients of both programs. Staff will report back to council, based on an inter-departmental exploration of options.
According to the staff report, the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society currently offers a weekly food distribution at Olivet Baptist Church on Wednesdays between 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. It serves between 650 and 900 individuals on a weekly basis.
The Don’t Go Hungry food program is looking for additional funding to “sustain” its operations, said the staff report.
A staff report said three Don’t Go Hungry sites in New West – in Queensborough, Sapperton and the West End – have all experienced “significantly increased” demand. Launched in 2020 in response to food needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, Don’t Go Hungry distributes free grocery hampers on Saturdays to more than 270 households containing 880 individuals on a weekly basis.
According to staff, the Don’t Go Hungry food program is looking for additional funding to sustain its operations and is striving to respond to the increasing demand for food supports in New Westminster. It applied to the city for close to $60,000 for a 2024 community grant, but only about one-third of the requested amount is considered eligible under the grant program’s criteria.
“If the DGH food program is unable to meet the increasing demand, then more households and individuals will experience food insecurity, and its associated health and social impacts,” said the report.
Visits to food banks rising
The staff report to council said Food Bank Canada’s 2023 Hunger Count reported there were nearly 200,000 visits to food banks in British Columbia in March 2023, which is a 20 per cent increase compared to March 2022.
“This trend is consistent in New Westminster, with local food hamper programs reporting consistently higher numbers over the past year,” said the report. “Moreover, food prices in Canada increased by 8.9 per cent during 2022, while general inflation increased by 6.8 per cent during this same year.”
The city’s report stated the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society has some parameters for a single-day distribution site in New Westminster to. It must be accessible (preferably with no stairs), be large enough to accommodate two food-distribution queues, have loading bay access, be pallet jack friendly, be rent-free, have street access and be transit friendly.
The city’s community planning staff had identified and shared five possible sites with the society, but they only met some of the parameters required by the society, said the report.
Mayor Patrick Johnstone said he’s spoken with the food bank, which stressed it isn’t being pushed out by Olivet Baptist Church but is leaving because the location no longer works for the program. He said the site has a number of issues related to the storage, movement and distribution of food.
“It's really a logistics problem with the way they want to operate their operation,” he said. “And part of it has to do with the scale of the food they're giving out, and that's really a challenge for them.”
Johnstone said people in the community are “really going to feel” the impacts of the food bank’s decision to provide services for New West residents at its Burnaby location.
“If we can't find a space, we need to at least find out from them what potential other options we have,” he said. “Because this is a very much-needed organization and a needed service in our city.”
Coun. Jaimie McEvoy said it will be more difficult for some people to get to the food bank in Burnaby, including people who have mobility disabilities. He supports the work being proposed by staff.
“Grocery inflation was 11 per cent last year, and the welfare disability, old age pensions did not go up 11 per cent,” he said. “Many of those folks are already budgeted at their absolute limits. So anytime you see that kind of pressure, where people can't purchase as much food as they were able to, even though those purchases might have been inadequate, you're going to see more pressure on food banks and other kinds of food meal services.”
Connecting with food providers
Coun. Ruby Campbell said she’d like staff to connect with other organizations providing food programs in New West, as collective conversation and advocacy may be needed.
Stark said staff wanted to bring these two particular food programs to council’s attention because their issues are time sensitive.
“What happens with these two programs will have a ripple effect on other food programs,” he said. “So I think this is a much larger discussion. And so we do plan to actually meet with those two specific food programs, but also reach out to other food programs. And hopefully, if we can try to address some of these issues, then try to get ahead of this moving forward.”
Stark noted there’s been a 20 per cent increase in food bank usage in the past year. He added that food inflation has made the issue “so much more extreme” for community members.
“I think food security programs are being challenged to actually address the increasing demands,” he told council.
Johnstone suggested staff may want to speak with Hope Omid, which runs a hamper program and is experiencing similar issues related to space and funding.
“They serve a couple of hundred families, mostly newcomers to Canada, and they're really constrained,” he said.
Coun. Daniel Fontaine said he’s all for helping to advocate on behalf of food banks, but suggested advocacy may be need regarding the core issues that increase demand for food programs, such as welfare rates and pension rates.
Coun. Nadine Nakagawa said she’d love to hear if there are any “bigger scale solutions that might be more creative or more outside the box” from what’s happening today.
“Because it just seemed like we will constantly be in this cycle of more and more people needing food, organizations being pushed out of the very few free places that we have,” she said. “So I would love to hear from staff, as these conversations are ongoing, if there are any big creative ideas around this that maybe the city could jump in or if we could advocate. Because it just seems like, more of the same is just going to bring more of the same.”
