During a pickleball tournament on December 2, Powell River Sport and Fitness Society (PRSFS) raised just over $1,000 for Powell River Action Centre Food Bank.
PRSFS is a nonprofit that has run the Powell River Racquet Centre on Joyce Avenue since 2020. The space operates courts for tennis, badminton and pickleball players.
“We called the tournament the pickleball jamboree,” said Susan Young, president of the nonprofit qathet Pickleball Association (qPA) and program director of PRSFS. “36 people turned out to play [with a donation] and those who didn’t play, like the tennis and badminton players, came out and donated money as well.”
The members thought donating money to the food bank could help stretch its dollars further. However, Young said PRSFS is also bringing down a box of food to donate next Thursday, December 21.
Savanna Dee, who manages Powell River Action Centre Food Bank, said they will take all the cash donations they can get, as she has seen a big jump in demand. Appearing at City of Powell River’s committee of the whole meeting last spring, Dee said: “We could not operate without the help of our community. It takes around $100,000 of food yearly for clients to access us once a month. We see about 2,500 visits annually to the food bank. We used to get four or five new clients a year and now we have more than 120 new clients.”
Powell River Action Centre Food Bank is located at 6816B Alberni Street, but its jurisdiction is from Saltery Bay to Lund, including Texada and Savary islands.
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