Work is progressing quickly on Mission’s newest food centre.
The first floor has been completed and the walls are up, said Ron Leger, one of the key fundraisers for the St. Joseph’s Food Bank.
“We’re about one-third of the way through,” he noted.
An Abbotsford Heat ticket sale fundraiser, held earlier this year, pitted local and provincial politicians against one another in a competition for who could sell the most tickets.
Mission Mayor Ted Adlem partnered with former Abbotsford-Mission MLA Randy Hawes and sold 18. Provincial election candidates Aird Flavelle (BC Green), MLA Simon Gibson and Preet Rai (BC NDP) combined for 20, said Leger.
The activity brought in $13,000 in donations, including two separate individual donations of $3,000.
“That really shows how much the community cares,” said Leger.
The project budget, including land, is $650,000. To date, $515,000 has been raised, leaving only $90,000 to go.
The building is located on Seventh Avenue, adjacent to the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.
A food bank operated out of the basement of the church for about 15 years, but demand grew to the point where the food bank needed a free-standing building. The structure will be a two-storey building, designed to look like a small church, with 1,860 square feet on each floor.
