The Okotoks Food Bank now has a facility nearly as large as the collective heart of the staff and the community which helps stock its shelves.
“I am quite relieved that we are finally in there,” said Pamela McLean, food bank executive director of the new facility at Unit 120, 220 Stockton Ave. “It’s one contained space. We don’t have team members going outside back and forth between two buildings.
“We don’t have our warehouse co-ordinator pushing a 200-pound cart food bank and forth on icy roadways.
“We are luxuriating in all of this extra space.”
The food bank opened its new facility on March 31 and it has gone from a 4,500 square foot space in its previous location to a 10,000 square foot facility – ideal for these stressful times.
“I have tremendous peace of mind knowing that I can properly implement the social distancing rules – spacing the team and volunteers,” McLean said. “But what gives me the greatest peace of mind is having the extra storage capacity.
“Knowing we can prepare for whatever is going to happen over the next couple of months. If we need to stockpile and store food to distribute, we have that capability.”
A new walk-in freezer is a welcomed addition.
“It is state-of-the art – we have a 20 by 27 feet walk-in unit,” she said.
“The capacity feels endless right now to help everyone in Foothills County,” she said.
She said the Foothills community's generosity hasn’t been slowed by the COVID-19.
The community continues to donate to the food bank. Just recently significant financial donations were made. Also a unique drive-thru food drive was held at the Okotoks Recreation Centre on March 22.
That new freezer is getting filled. Okotoks Walmart donated 900 pounds of prepared meals.
Staff was busy on opening day -- it immediately was distributing food hampers from 1 to 3 p.m., while the revised help yourself shelf was going at the same time.
The bank is practising social-distancing. Clients were asked to pick up their hampers on 10 minutes intervals – 1 p.m., 1:10, 1:20 and going on.
“We reduced our hamper team to three (down from five) so we can respect the social distancing,” said McLean. “It went fairly well. We did miss four clients, but they came back the next day.”
The social-distancing has prevented the food bank from getting the proper debut it deserves – McLean would love to show it off to the public.
“I just wish the clients and the public could come in and see how much more space they have – no one can see the space except for the team and our core volunteers,” McLean said. “No one can truly appreciate this beautiful, new space until we are on the other side of the pandemic.
“Trust me, as soon as we’re out of this, we want to have the biggest party for the whole community – and we will be able to accommodate that. We have a five-year lease – and it is a decent lease – we plan to be here for a long time.”
The public will have plenty of room to park -- McLean said the amount of parking at the new facility is a highlight.
The food bank has had to modify some of its donation output and its operation hours due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The extra space for the bank will be needed during the COVID-19 crunch. Following is information from the food bank's website.
Those dropping off donations are asked to bring the items in from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday to Friday to ensure staff and volunteers are there to accept them.
Clients are no longer permitted to have general access to the help yourself shelves to respect social distancing. However, bags of food will be prepared beforehand and distributed to Help Yourself Shelf clients outside of the front-door entrance.
For clients receiving a food hamper, the individual will be asked to make their food selections over the phone and wait in their vehicles for the hamper to be brought to them.
To make a hamper appointment, calling the office is preferred over a drop-in visit (403-651-6629) or email [email protected].
For more information about the Okotoks Food Bank go to www.okotoksfoodbank.ca
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