Kelowna-based food bank says 2023 has brought record demand, amid inflation and wildfires

For the Central Okanagan Food Bank, 2023 has been a year like no other, as staff and volunteers have worked to meet the rapidly growing food security needs of the population, coupled with an unprecedented fire emergency that saw several thousands of people forced from their homes when the McDougall Creek wildfire struck the region in mid-August.  

With emergency support services overwhelmed and many evacuees sleeping in their vehicles, food bank staff jumped into action, calling on volunteers, corporate sponsors and local grocery stores to respond to the crisis.

"They were here within this building within three hours and that Friday they built 600 emergency food hampers," executive director Trevor Moss said. 

"Everyone rallied together. They realized that it could have been me or you that could have been displaced."

For the next three weeks, staff and volunteers worked with emergency social services to provide people displaced from their homes with the food and care items they needed.

"We realized that people would not be in kitchen facilities, so what we did is we actually tailored those hampers toward things like cereals and cans that you can open — anything that could be used that you didn't actually need an oven for," Moss said.

The community's response was so strong that the Kelowna-based food bank initially had to turn people away, Moss said, explaining that staff drew upon that list of volunteers in the subsequent weeks and months as the food bank continued to respond to the needs of displaced residents.

"Even up until this day we are still serving families that are displaced and they are entering this Christmas season and still staying in hotels, so we are giving them gift cards and the more robust hampers that they need."

The increased demand for food and essential living products brought on by the fire emergency has only added to what Moss described as a record year for food insecurity in the region. 

Like food banks across the country, the Central Okanagan Food Bank is seeing the effects of high inflation, which is pushing more and more people into poverty, Moss said. 

Coupled with a housing crisis in B.C., and the vast number of people moving to the Okanagan region, Moss said the food bank has seen an increase in hamper requests this fall by 32 per cent over last year. 

"We will actually serve more people in December than we did during the fire crisis ... so as you can see there is a build-up and we are preparing for that," Moss said.

The Central Okanagan Food Bank is the largest food security organization in the B.C. Interior and one of four food bank hubs in the province, distributing food to 32 food banks in the southern Interior for Food Banks Canada. 

This summer volunteers and staff at the Kelowna warehouse sent pallets of food to other fire-ravaged areas, particularly in the Shuswap and the south Okanagan regions, striving to fulfil its mission as a food bank hub, Moss said. 

On a busy morning this week, about half a dozen cars lined up outside the distribution centre to pick up food hampers, as volunteers like Dan McFarlane worked inside to fill the hamper boxes with specific items that meet the dietary needs of individual clients and families.

McFarlane has been volunteering at the food bank for the past five years and said he finds the nature of the work rewarding. 

"We feed people but we also give them some hope and some optimism and some positive words," McFarlane said as he pulled cheese and yogurt from a cooler to place into a food hamper.

"They might not want to share with their friends and their family that they are in a situation where they are coming to the food bank, but I am anonymous to them and they are anonymous to me so they might volunteer some information about the hardships they are going through and you can empathize with them."

With other clients he'll joke about the success or failing of their favourite sports team, he said, adding that he values the connections he has with the people he meets.

"If you can offer some hope and a few positive vibes and a smile, that's really rewarding for everybody."

CBC B.C.'s Food Bank Day returns Dec. 1. Tune in to special programming on CBC Radio One, CBC Listen and cbc.ca/bc.