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Vegreville Food Bank Homeless
Vegreville Food Bank Homeless
Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser
The Vegreville Food Bank Society (VFBS) is desperately searching for temporary home in the wake of a devastating water leak in late March which caused substantial damage to North Pointe Community Church where its operation has been housed for the past eight years.
Vegreville Food Bank Coordinator Joanna Karczmarek said, “It was a shock, but our volunteers moved things along quickly and efficiently. For the clients, unfortunately, it can be confusing where to call or where to go. We hope to be operating as normal as soon as possible.”
VFBS Chair Jocelyn Mouyios admitted that it’s basically “chaos” right now and they are taking things “one day at a time” to try and get back up and running. Mouyios said they have been giving gift cards to clients who are currently in an emergency crisis situation, but that practice is “totally unsustainable” and they need to find a large commercial space between 1,500 and 2,000 sq. ft. to accommodate food hamper storage, assembly and distribution.
Mouyios said they are very fortunate to live in such a fantastic community, and she is “forever grateful” to food bank and community volunteers as well as staff with ATCO who assisted with moving the non-perishable items to a temporary storage area in the Vegreville Wildlife Federation’s building. “The VWF totally stepped up and agreed to let us store our items.”
She is also appreciative of the efforts of Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk who contacted the food bank within 24 hours of the water leak and offered to look into any assistance the provincial government may be able to offer and approach other
Mouyios said that she and Karczmarek did meet with town officials after the incident, but said there is not sufficient space in the town administration building to accommodate an office, storage and assembly of food hampers.
They have looked at a couple of other properties in town to operate on a temporary basis. Mouyios said, “Ideally, our dream would be to raise enough funds to have our own location, where a number of non-profits could also operate and serve their clients.”
Calvin Sommerville, Pastor of North Pointe Community Church, said they have had to temporarily relocate their operations to the former Snap Fitness location and has been told it could take upward to three months for repairs to be completed at the church.
