Filling Tanks & Filling Tummies
Food Banks Canada’s Capacity Boost Fund – Hub Stream is made possible through the generous support of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation to support larger hubs to improve their ability to acquire and share food more efficiently throughout the Food Bank Network.
In 2021, the Red Deer Food Bank applied for Food Bank Canada’s Hub Stream grant, knowing it would be an opportunity to receive funds that would greatly expand our capacity to serve Red Deer and Central Alberta.
Thanks to the generosity of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, RDFB received enough funds to purchase equipment & vehicles to support our work.
Food Banks Canada Capacity Boost Fund - Hub Stream
Through a competitive review process, funds were allocated to organizations that best demonstrated how their project would allow them to meet one or more of the grant objectives in clear and measurable ways. Red Deer Food Bank had to illustrate how these objectives would impact our organizational capacity and implement sustained systems change in our region. Some of the objectives included increased capacity to accept & distribute more food throughout the region, and improved efficiency to increase the amount of food we could safely acquire and distribute from our location.
Red Deer Food Bank is a regional hub for Central Alberta, serving an area of over 20,000 square kilometers and supporting 18 single-day-service rural food banks, along with 30 regional agency partners such as the Outreach Centre and Mustard Seed, among others.
How we used the grant
Receiving this grant was immensely helpful in achieving all we have in the past year. One of the first purchases we could secure was a new forklift for the expanded warehouse capacity we created by moving to Bay 10 late in 2021. This little beauty has been seen humming around the warehouse since it appeared early last fall, and has made life so much better for our warehouse team as they can stock palette racks and unload the truck more quickly and easily.
A happy delivery day.
You can still see Dave smiling…
One purchase that was made most people don’t get to see, but has been an absolute necessity to this expanded warehouse capacity is the reconfiguration of our freezer and the addition of a refrigeration and freezer room in Bay 10. These large walk-in coolers and freezers are used by the Warehouse team when perishable items require sorting and storage, the Pantry/Hamper Distribution team to keep items available for stocking, and by the Culinary team as they prepare foods for the food trucks and the now-operational Commercial Kitchen.
Now THAT is one big cooler.
Produce being loaded into the cooler for the weekend.
Probably the most visible and most public of our upgrades from this generous grant was the very-much-needed new Isuzu cube truck that our driver Gary uses day-in, day-out. Seen around all corners of the city, the new truck is picking up from grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and special events all year long. It is also used to deliver food to and from other foodbanks. Considering “ol’ reliable” was getting high on miles and thin on the floor boards, we are very, VERY happy to have this new unit out on the streets.
Isn’t it lovely?
On the road again…
This funding afforded to us removed the economic barrier that prevented us from purchasing this equipment for network benefit. These tools, vehicles and equipment were highly needed and will be well utilized for the shared benefit of the region for years to come.