Loaves and Fishes Summer 2020 Newsletter

I hope you're all doing well and enjoying your summer during these different circumstances. We usually mail you our quarterly newsletter but thought it best to email so you can share this safely as you see fit.

Thank you so much for continuing to support us with your partnership distributing food to your community through these uncertain times. 2020 has been quite a challenging year for many and Loaves & Fishes is no exception. In the beginning of the Covid 19 crisis we saw a marked drop in food available. However, never ones to shrink from a challenge, we drastically increased our efforts to source food and support wherever we could find it.Our journey began with tapping into food that was originally destined for restaurants that had closed. A couple of examples include a supply of 9,000 dozen eggs per week through Food Banks BC and BC Egg Farmers. We also tapped into the local fish farmers supply as they had thousands of farmed fish needing to be processed without enough buyers. These innovative partnerships enabled us to continue our commitment for our Food 4 All program in providing an abundance of free food throughout Vancouver Island.

Not only are we serving other food banks from Victoria through the North Island, we’re bringing 5,000-7,000 pounds of food alternating every Wednesday for our Port Hardy Depot and then to Port McNeil, supplying free food to other non-profits and indigenous communities in the area. On our way, we drop food in Campbell River with Saint Vincent de Paul, enabling them to spread the food even further to Thasis and Gold River.We expanded our Empties 4 Food program to raise extra funds and provide a convenient, safe recycling disposal option. Additionally, we extended our annual Food 4 Summer Food Drive sponsored by Thrifty Foods and Island Savings through all of June and added a “virtual food drive” element to offset our increased costs. For infection control reasons we made drastic changes to our daily operations and dropped the number of regular volunteers significantly in favour of paid workers who could take longer shifts. We are providing an average of 138,343 pounds of food per month to households and 21,581 pounds per month to other nonprofits across the island. As always, the food that is unfit for humans is being given to farmers.Ultimately throughout the pandemic our overall goal remains the same. There should be an abundance of food available to all and no unnecessary food waste. It is because of the help we receive from our community and caring people such as you all at St Columba's Anglican-United Church that Loaves & Fishes Food Bank is not only still here, but growing our food distribution with the intention that all of Vancouver Island has access to reliable healthy food moving forward. 

Thank you and we will update you again in the Fall. 

Gratefully yours,

Peter Sinclair 

Executive Director
and
Abby Sauchuk
Director of Development
Loaves and Fishes Food Bank