The Lakes District Family Enhancement Society (LDFES) and the local food bank will receive almost $100,000 towards its Community Food Hub Transition project through a British Columbia Rural Dividend grant.
The grant funding of $99,947 comes under the special circumstances provision of the dividend and was announced on Jan. 21 by the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRORD).
“We’re aware that some rural communities are facing difficulties in the aftermath of wildfire season and other challenges in the forest industry,” said FLNRORD Minister Doug Donaldson. “We’ve prioritized certain project applications to help First Nations and rural communities ensure they remain healthy and economically viable places to live and raise families.”
The money will help support the services of the Lakes District Food Bank, including its mobile food truck, as well as helping provide support for accessing health care and child care, LDFES executive director Scott Zayac told Lakes District News.
That set of services, which Zayac calls The Link forms the food bank’s transition towards “a more holistic approach to food security, including programs and services that will better meet the needs of the different communities in the region.”
“With this funding through the Rural Dividend Program, The Link will provide more poverty reduction and food security programming for community members including opportunities to learn to grow, select and prepare healthy food while increasing access to mental health and social supports.”
Zayac explained that a fair amount of people who go to the food bank have jobs but don’t earn enough to make all their ends meet, and he wants to be able to help those people meet their food needs without having to go to the food bank and also help them boost their earning abilities.
The grant will particularly enable the Mobile Food Centre to broaden its coverage to more remote areas of Grassy Plains, Topley, Granisle and Tachet.
READ MORE: Mobile food bank fighting rural poverty
The grant is part of $3,801,294 awarded by the province in 2018-2019 for special circumstances.
The province has also given out $673,124 this month in project development grants to 68 local governments, First Nations and not-for-profit organizations.
