Here’s a roundup of news from B.C.’s food and beverage industries, including a Vancouver food bank searching for a new site, the results of a national food festival fundraiser for a sustainable seafood program, and a program to promote buying B.C. food and beverages.

Greater Vancouver Food Bank

The Greater Vancouver Food Bank (GVFB) has faced and overcome many an obstacle during the COVID-19 pandemic, including relocating.

Although it found a temporary space to operate from, it now needs to find a new location. 

GVFB CEO David Long explained that the food bank has been using space at a 10,000-square-foot warehouse that Low Tide Properties donated but that the property company has plans for the building in June.

Accordingly, the food bank is asking the public for help in finding approximately 5,000 to 10,000 square feet of warehouse space, including a loading dock or bay.

The size of the space allows for physical distancing and a double line for distributing food efficiently to the 300 to 450 people who use the food bank each day.

The location should also have transit access, which food bank users rely upon.

The food bank would use the space to distribute food five days a week.

Long said that the City of Vancouver hasn’t been able to find a location for the food bank.

As the GVFB leases two properties for its main office, a warehouse and food distribution site in Burnaby, and a property on Thornton Street in Vancouver, it wants to avoid a third lease and is seeking anyone who can donate the space.

The Thorton Street location will be a daily pickup location for 100 community agencies but renovations have been delayed until the GVFB receives development and building permits.

Anyone who can help the food bank is asked to contact GVFB communications officer Jodie Ou at 778-387-2666 or by email.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKwlu5AhKWo

Ocean Wise fundraiser

Chowder lovers helped a national sustainable seafood program based in Vancouver to raise thousands of dollars.

You may remember that Ocean Wise launched its first-ever National Chowder Chowdown Festival throughout the month of February.

Ocean Wise reported that the event saw an estimated 8,000 bowls of soup served at 55 participating eateries across Canada.

The sales of these bowls raised over $35,000 for the nonprofit Ocean Wise Seafood program.

Several participating establishments won awards, including Vancouver’s Edge Catering chef Jasmin Porcic, who won the Best Use of a Restorative Species Award for his use of clams and kelp; B.C.’s Naramata Inn chef Ned Bell for Most Likes and Comments on a Chowder Photo for an Instagram photo of Bell with his Road 17 Char Chowder with organic potatoes and foraged Naramata sumac; and Vancouver’s Organic Ocean and Ocean Mama chef Poyan Danesh for Most Funds Raised in Western Canada.   

The funds will go towards helping Canadian consumers and food and beverage establishments choose sustainable seafood; completing new fishery and aquaculture assessments for more sustainable Canadian seafood choices; and new initiatives like the Arctic Small Scale Fisheries program (in collaboration with Arctic communities) and the Salmon Initiative (to help preserve cold-water salmon habitats from climate change).

Buy B.C.

Numerous efforts have arisen to encourage consumers to buy locally to support the B.C. economy during the challenges created by the pandemic.

One ongoing effort to promote the province’s food and beverage industries is continuing its efforts that will also customers to shop and eat locally.

The latest round of Buy B.C. funding has opened for applications.

Farmers, fishers, and food and beverage processors can apply for help in promoting their products and boosting their sales.

The program was launched in 2018 and now over 500 businesses have been licensed to use the Buy B.C. logo, and 116 companies received cost-shared funding.

In 2021, the Buy B.C. Partnership Program will provide $2 million to eligible applicants for marketing using the Buy B.C. logo or promotional materials to identify the product as from B.C.

Among the companies that have benefitted from the program are the Squamish Water Kefir Company, Kelowna’s Little Creek Dressing, and Sooke’s Sheringham Distillery.

The deadline for applications is April 7.

Application details are available online at the Investment Agricultural Foundation website.