The City of Vancouver offered details Monday about stepped-up efforts to ensure vulnerable communities had continued access to fresh food and meals.
Because many of the usual service providers have had to scale back production or alter operations due to COVID-19, people in Vancouver may be struggling to find low-cost or free food options.
"The Food Security and Access team, which is part of the City’s COVID-19 Community Resilience Branch, is working on a number of scalable programs that will improve access to healthy and regular meals on a daily basis. These programs will focus on residents who are marginalized and/or made more vulnerable through the crisis, including those who are in self-isolation, ill or can’t have their needs met because services are diminishing," the City of Vancouver explained via an e-mailed media release.
Funding for these programs has come from multiple sources. The City has approved funding for two weeks to deliver food to private SROs, and has contracts in place with both Vancouver Community College (VCC) and Potluck to produce those meals.
VCC says they have worked to orchestrate a huge meal and food delivery program that currently requires the creation of 2000 meals, three times per week (1000 lunches and 1000 dinners). Each hamper includes four meals, snacks, napkins, drinks and cutlery. The menu is determined based on the supplies available, and VCC culinary staff will strive to include a combination of hot and cold meals and snacks.
Additionally, private enterprises have offered up funds and/or services to ensure all residents can continue to be provided with food. One such donation came from the Giustra Foundation, which has provided two weeks' worth of food to serve 210 people in Downtown Eastside SROs.
In order to assist the Greater Vancouver Food Bank in their ongoing work to connect people to food supplies, the City has mobilized both the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (QET) site and the Park Board’s Mount Pleasant Community Centre (MPCC). Vancouver residents can access the QET on Tuesdays and Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the MPCC on Thursdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to make use of the Food Bank's resources.
All of Vancouver's COVID-19 resources, like food and hand-washing stations, are mapped for easy locating:
Businesses, organizations, or individulas looking to donate to the effort to provide free or low-cost meals to vulnerable members of the community are urged to donate to the services denoted on the map.
