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More Room, More Reach: The Food Bank Relocation Project

Jun 17, 2025 | 12:31 PM

With 20 times the fridge and freezer space and over four times the square footage, Vernon’s new food bank will be a gamechanger for our community.

For years, the food bank has been in the House of Hope. “It’s not the proper size for the volume we do now, and actually constrains how many people we can serve,” said Paul Bielby, Community Ministries Director with the Salvation Army Vernon.

During food drives, the Salvation Army rents sea cans because they don’t have room to store all the food. The operation is also currently split between two buildings in different parts of town which costs a lot of extra driving, labour and time.

Lack of space sometimes requires the food bank to even turn down offers of large food donations that come unexpectedly. “It might be five pallets of frozen chicken – if we can pick it up tomorrow. We have to say thank you but sorry, we don’t have the freezer space. It’s awful, because we and other organizations could really use that food.”

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Happily, the new food bank will solve that.

The renovated facility will be on 24th Street in the former Salvation Army thrift store, which moved to the Midtown Mall on 43rd Avenue. Bielby shared that the thrift store is doing great there. “Sales have been up since day one, so that’s a real blessing.”

The new, purpose-built, food bank will have grocery store shelving and displays, some of which were donated by Safeway during their recent renovation. Clients will have more autonomy to choose the food they want. “Come in, grab a shopping cart, here’s the nice display of apples, oh, here’s the bread rack. It’s going to be such a better experience for our clients.”

The shopping model is meant to make more people feel comfortable accessing the food bank’s services, as well as preventing waste by allowing people to choose the food that they and their family like.

“I do not believe that there is a food shortage. I believe there’s a food distribution problem,” stated Bielby. He explained that sometimes it has been easier, cheaper, or safer from a legal perspective for some organizations to simply dispose of food rather than donate it, and those are the areas that we need to address.  “And the problem is also on our end when we don’t have the room to take large donations. With this new space, we’ll basically be able to accept unlimited amounts of food.” 

Part of that distribution is sharing it with other organizations like the Upper Room Mission. That will be possible once the food bank can accept and store larger quantities. Unlike the current location in the House of Hope, the new location has a proper truck loading dock so that pallets can be forklifted right off the truck and then onto industrial, warehouse shelving.

The larger space will also help us to store items that we need to be properly equipped for emergencies. The Salvation Army provides relief to first responders and other people affected by disasters like wildfire. The new building will allow us to store our Emergency Services Van, as well as all the supplies that we need to feed large numbers of people during an emergency.

The food bank relocation project is a $1.5 million undertaking. With the first million dollars raised, there’s still a half million dollars needed. “We couldn’t wait until we had raised the total to start this project, because the need for a larger food bank is so great right now. And the demographics of the people using the food bank have changed. We have a lot of clients now that are dual-income families with kids, but because of the dramatic inflation in recent years they are really struggling to buy basic groceries.

They’re looking to raise the final $500,000 by partnering with individuals, businesses, and organizations.

How to get involved:

Call 250-550-7284 or email paul.bielby@salvationarmy.ca.
Donate directly at vernonhouseofhope.com
You can also follow the project’s progress at the Salvation Army Vernon’s Facebook page.