The executive director of the Saanich Peninsula Lions Food Bank said a donation of $100,000 from the District of Central Saanich will make a major difference at a time when donations are down.
“It’s amazing,” said Bev Elder, “the donations that we have received from all of our local municipalities have been absolutely amazing.”
Central Saanich council approved the donation at its June 14 meeting after Mayor Ryan Windsor had filed a notice of motion in May.
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The money comes from the federal-provincial grant designed to help communities recover from the economic and social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Donations are definitely not coming through the door right now, so this is definitely going to keep us going for quite a while,” Elder said.
Central Saanich council also approved grants of $100,000 each for WJOLELP (Tsartlip) and STAUTW (Tsawout) First Nations.
Central Saanich received $3.45 million in overall funding through the federal-provincial program.
The food bank had earlier received $50,000 from North Saanich and $5,000 from Sidney through the same program.
Sidney also built the current food bank building in 2011 to replace the foodbank’s former Iroquois Park location previously displaced by the municipality’s significant park improvement project, said Andrew Hicik, Director of Corporate Services. The construction value of the building at that time was $576,000, he added.
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