Powell River Action Centre Food bank users double since 2019

Tomorrow, August 17, is recognized as National Nonprofit Day, a time to acknowledge and celebrate ongoing efforts of nonprofit organizations that serve the community and improve the lives of those who live in it.

Many folks in the qathet region rely on nonprofit charities such as Powell River Action Centre Food Bank, especially with the rise in the cost of living, including higher food prices.

Food bank manager Savanna Dee said it is busier than ever, and the number of clients accessing the services has doubled since 2019.

"We have seniors and mostly working families coming here," said Dee. "We're the only program in town where you can come every month."

Although clients and needs are up, Dee said donations have been down, most likely due to economic uncertainty and high rent and living costs. 

However, local farms such as Terra Nostra and Blueberry Commons grow food specifically for the food bank. This provides clients with fresh lettuce, zucchini and other seasonal produce. 

"We offer a 25 per cent farm tax credit for farmers," said Dee. "It's important to get that information out there, because farmers can get quite a bit of money back, and that helps them stay in business." 

While staff members have been busy with clients, Dee has also been in charge of getting the local food bank accredited through Food Banks Canada's Standards of Excellence program.

"This accreditation is a testament to our team's hard work and dedication to providing our clients with the highest quality of service," said Dee. "This process has taken over a year of policy writing by a professional, then myself, and the rest of the team fulfilling the policies."

These standards are designed as a baseline set of guidelines that will be used to benchmark future performance improvements such as client service, food operations and safe food handling.

"By becoming accredited, we can advance to an even stronger and more agile food banking system, activate shared learning and amplify the network's collective impact on Canada's food insecurity problem," said Dee. "A big corporation is not going to donate millions of dollars unless you're accredited." 

Dee said emergency procedures have to be put in place, such as backup generators.

"If the power goes out, we have generators, we have a lot of food, we have tents and barbecues," said Dee. "We could feed people for quite a while out of here."

Although all of this is good news, Dee said in the past few years big donations have been down, and the food bank had to cut back on staff.

"We have fresh produce in the summer but in the winter we buy potatoes, onions, carrots, garlic, things that people can make soup out of," said Dee. "We do gluten-free, diabetic and vegetarian [diets], and if somebody can't cook, we'll make them a special bag of things you just add some water to, or easy to open and eat meals."

According to the Powell River Action Centre Food Bank March 2025 hunger count, the local food bank has 376 clients: 366 are existing clients and 10 are new; 289 are adults and 87 are children under the age of 18 years old.

Most clients are either employed or on employment insurance benefits, disability related benefits, old-age pension or social assistance. Some have no income.

A majority of folks using food bank services in qathet are in rental units, but more than 15 clients own their own home; none are unhoused. 

"They've got to knock these rents down, they have to do something to stop these reno-evictions and these outrageous rents that people are being charged," said Dee. "One bag of groceries is $100 now; it's ridiculous in this day and age, with the amount of food that we can grow."

The food bank also has a food recovery program.

"The sandwich shop here, they have fresh bread; every day they make it," said Dee. "If they have leftovers, they donate."

Dee added that most of the staff members are on some sort of disability, so the food bank is also helping employ people.

"We are giving people on disability a job that helps them get back on their feet," said Dee. "I don't think the government's doing its job to keep these prices down. We can't blame everything on Trump, this happened before him."

Powell River Action Centre Food Bank is located at 7616B Alberni Street. It is open three days per week, Tuesday to Thursday, throughout the year.

For more information, call 604.485.9166, or go to powellriverfoodbank.com.

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