Our Daily Bread Nelson is gearing up for its expansion into the former SPCA building at 520 Falls Street, and it needs the community’s support.
Our Daily Bread, operated through the Kootenay Christian Fellowship (KCF), provides hot meals to community members in need five days a week and has recently soft-launched food bank services once a week.
KCF Pastor Jim Reimer says the hot lunch program feeds about 100 people per day but notes there was a need identified by the program’s users for food bank services.
“They get their meal at Our Daily Bread, but then they have nothing to eat on the weekends or in the evenings. We’re finding that families need food to take home to cook for their children, and they were asking for that all the time. So, in order for Our Daily Bread to serve the community better, we thought we should start providing a food bank, and so we’ve been doing that.”
However, the space ODB is operating out of now is limited, with Reimer saying the fellowship wanted to be able to offer more to the community.
“Not only did we need more space for the food bank, but we also needed more space for other programming that KCF is doing for the community. For example, art therapy—we want to provide space for art therapy and for tutoring children. There’s a real need in the community for services geared towards children, like after-school care. The space that was occupied by the SPCA will serve in that capacity as well.”
The new space isn’t available until the end of November, with Reimer saying KCF will be evaluating plans for renovations in December, with the goal of being fully operational in January.
Our Daily Bread is funded entirely through donations. The hot lunch program costs the organization about $160,000 per year to operate.
Reimer says offering food bank services will qualify the organization for a variety of government grants; however, it’s still going to need the community’s support.
“We really need the support of the community to provide. We can’t provide any services if we don’t have either A: funding or B: a product. And so we’re going to be looking for that kind of support. We’re hoping to get some grant money, but also we’re hoping that the retailers in town will support us, as well as individuals.”
There is a demand locally for baby supplies, such as formula and diapers, in addition to non-perishable food items, which can be dropped off at Our Daily Bread at 520 Falls Street.
Reimer says the food bank’s hours will depend entirely on community donations, adding that monetary donations are also appreciated.
“If we have no donations, then we have nothing to give out. That is both with money and with physical things. Cash is really good because then we can buy what people need and target exactly where the need is. We want to be open as much as possible. Right now, we are doing it one day a week, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. But once we open up, we’re hoping that we can be open at least three or four days a week.”
Monetary donations are accepted via e-transfer or in person at ODB’s office. A link with more information can be found here.
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