Thursday, May 14, 2020
VOLUME 2 I ISSUE 46
MERIDIANSOURCE.CA
Rollin’ in refrigerated-style TAYLOR WEAVER
EDITOR
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It seems Border City residents truly believe one good deed deserves another. Brian and Diane Prodahl, of Prodahl Environmental Services Ltd., recently presented the keys to a muchneeded refrigerated van to The Olive Tree. The van, valued at roughly $38,000, was purchased by the Prodahl’s using personal savings and not company funds. “Lloydminster’s been good to us, and whether things are good or bad right now (regarding COVID-19), that had nothing to do with this donation. This is for all the good years, and I felt now was the time for Brian and Diane to give back to our community,” said Brian via telephone on Tuesday morning. “I first thought about helping out The Olive Tree last winter and approached Becky some t ime soon af ter that to see if there was something specific on their bucket list, and she mentioned a refrig-
erator van,” said Brian. “I went shopping and eventually found something in the price range, and then found a contractor in Edmonton who could put a new electric refrigerator unit on it.” Being local business owners for almost 20 years, Brian and Diane know how important giving back to your community is, and practise what they preach. “I’ve watched my peers in Lloydminster, and there’s a lot of generous people here,” said Brian. “There’s a lot of good corporate citizens, and over the years my wife and I have thought about doing something like this, it was just never the right time to make a big donation.” With this being a refrigerated van, its main purpose will be the pickup and delivery of perishable food in the summer. “I think as this pandemic changes things in regards to the finances in Lloydminster, there’s going to be a lot of use for the van. I guess the timing was perfect,” added Brian.
Supplied Photo
Brian and Diane Prodahl (left) were all smiles as they passed the keys to a refrigerated cube van to The Olive Tree’s Becky Schille and Jana Thompson. The reefer van will be used to transport perishable food items to Border City and surrounding area residents.
The Olive Tree’s executive director, Becky Schille, explained the non-profit was able to successfully transport perishable food in the past using freezer blankets and coolers, but the van is a welcomed addition to The Olive Tree family. “We deliver food to Onion Lake and we’ve previously tried not to send dairy and produce because it would sweat
on t he way t here, so now it’ll be much less stressful and we can go up and take our time, and it makes it much easier.” Thankfully for those who rely on the services provided by The Olive Tree, operations have not changed too drastically since the World stood still in midMarch. “We’re still running most of our pro-
grams, but the way we do it is different. We are still serving community meals Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but by pick-up or delivery,” she said. “We’re still feeding most of the same people, we just don’t get to spend time with them and visit, and our senior’s luncheon, normally we’d visit and spend time with them, but now we’re deliver-
ing the meals to them in their homes. We’re still feeding people, but we definitely miss interacting with them. “We’re all really looking forward to next week and being able to open and see peop l e a g ai n,” sh e sai d , as retail operations in Saskatchewan are permitted to re-open on May 19 as part of the Re-open Saskatchewan Plan.