Nanaimo’s community food bank rang in the new year with $365,000 in donations for a new warehouse.
Nanaimo Loaves and Fishes Community Food Bank kicked off its fundraising campaign two months ago. Among the contributions are more than $200,000 in taxpayer dollars from the City of Nanaimo and a $10,000 annual donation over the next five years from the Nanaimo Port Authority.
Peter Sinclair, executive director for the food bank, said the total is pretty good, but still less than the overall budget for the purchase.
The food bank aims to raise $550,000 to expand into a Fry Street warehouse more than 10 times its current size. Conditions on the new building were to be removed Dec. 31 – the same time it hoped to have financing in place. That deadline has shifted to Jan. 15. A crowdsourcing campaign will begin this month, Sinclair said.