The Food Bank on the Edge’s new building has officially — and quite literally — landed.
The new modular facility was trucked into Ucluelet in two halves and craned onto its new home at Tugwell Fields on Nov. 8.
“It was joyous; absolutely joyous,” Food Bank on the Edge Society executive director Cris Martin told the Westerly News. “What was really nice was that people in our community were coming up to watch because this is the community’s food bank. The most heartening thing was that other people were up there watching…The whole community is so excited and that’s what meant the most to me.”
The roughly $325,000 building was paid for with $150,000 from the District of Ucluelet’s Barkley Community Forest Fund and the rest being covered by The Lake Family’s All One Fund. The district also provided the land at Tugwell Fields to the society for $1.
The new building will replace the current food bank facility located at the Seaplane Base parking lot, which has long past its lifespan.
Martin said she has lived in Ucluelet for 14 years and has spent the past seven diligently working towards securing a new food bank for the region.
“Half of the time I’ve lived here, I’ve been focused on trying to get a new building for our food bank…If people saw our building, they would understand. This building is rotting under our feet. I literally have duct tape holding part of the floor up. It’s 50 years old and it’s falling apart,” she said. “Our health is compromised down here where we are. This is a chance for us to get a clean environment and one that helps us operate with more dignity and respect that our volunteers and our clients deserve.”
She hopes to officially open the new building’s doors in the spring of 2025 with fundraising efforts ongoing to pay for water and electricity hook ups as well as a deck, accessible ramp and roof extension.
“The building is bought and paid for. It’s on its foundation, but there’s a lot of stuff we have to do to it before we can become the Food Bank on the Edge up at Tugwell Fields,” she said.
“Realistically, we’re a food bank, we’ve always operated solely through donations so fundraising will never end for us, but specifically we are trying to really focus on getting the money we need to finish this job.”
The fundraising goal is set at $150,000 with $87,000 in the bank so far. Residents can follow the fundraising progress at the Ucluelet Co-op where a wall graphic is providing updates.
“I’m thrilled with the support of our community. They’ve never let us down,” Martin said. “It’s just gratifying to know that people get it. This town gets it. This is part of our support for our friends and neighbours who have to come to the food bank…It’s people that we know in the community. It speaks to the heart of the matter that food insecurity is definitely part of our reality, costs are not going down and we’re just trying to keep people fed who need to be fed.”
