Help for Kamloops Food Bank arrives from Calgary

KAMLOOPS – A 53-foot trailer delivered $50,000 worth of reclaimed food from Calgary to the Kamloops Food Bank this week.

The Calgary Food Bank, a strong supporter of nearby foodbanks, started donating to Kamloops roughly three years ago, and the Aug. 11 delivery came at just the right time for the local food bank.

“They called us and said their warehouse was overflowing,” Executive Director Bernadette Siracky says, adding this a 'timely and very necessary' donation. “Our shelves do get low in August.”

Siracky says as the summer hits and people’s normal routines change, the donations often become scarcer, and this shipment of more than 500 boxes provides roughly $50,000 worth of food and supplies.

Siracky says all the reclaimed food items sent are non-perishable and the shipment also contained hygiene items like toilet paper, toothbrushes, laundry soap and even pet food.

Reclaimed food is food from stores that is less than perfect for sale. In some instances packaging is damaged but the actual food product is still edible.

She is very grateful to the volunteers who donated and made the shipment possible. East West Express trucking brought the food from Calgary, BigSteelBox provided a container for excess food, True Construction Ltd. provided a forklift to unload skids out the truck and United Steelworkers local 7619 and 1-417 provided volunteers who sorted the thousands of pounds of food.

The Kamloops Food Bank serves about 7,000 members in Kamloops as well as nine smaller banks in the region. Siracky says each user has a differing level of need, with some people visit the food bank every month while some only come in once a year.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Dana Reynolds at dreynolds@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.