FOOD BANK ON WHEELS SOCIETY

Food Bank On Wheels mainly home delivers food and sundry items to single-parent families with a member experiencing a mental or physical disability that face barriers accessing traditional food banks safely in the Metro Vancouver area. This service is not readily available thus the need for our unique home delivery service. FBOW additionally assists low-income individuals/families with food donations to The Vancouver Sheppard House in Surrey. We continue to help Salvation Army/Caring Place in Maple Ridge Access Youth Outreach & School District 42 donating rescued/donated foods to help those with food insecurity. In a limited capacity FBOW also serves seniors facing mobility challenges or other disabilities that prevent them from accessing traditional food banks providing home-delivered food hampers. Each monthly home-delivered food hamper contains a carefully curated selection of fresh fruits & vegetables perishable foods milk eggs (which we purchase to ensure quality & meet specific dietary needs) alongside donated/rescued perishable & non-perishable foods. Each monthly food hamper consists of approximately 9-12 days worth of food depending on size of family. The high cost of living & Inflation has presented ongoing challenges in volunteer recruitment prompting us to hire a dedicated team of staff to ensure adequate staffing needed for consistent and reliable delivery of our essential services. These part-time staff and dedicated volunteers manage every aspect of our operation from food sourcing and coordinating food preparation to deliveries as well as administrative tasks that include client registration setting up delivery dates pick up of donations and all aspects of our social media. FBOW has completed our Community Services Recovery Grant from the Government of Canada through SurreyCares to adapt and modernize the needs of our charity adopting new and upgrading current digital technology to meet our charitable objectives enhancing our organizational systems & processes. This consisted of Communications & Technology: New Website Social Media Creation SEO & Digital Equipment. This crucial support enables us to reach more people in need streamline our operations and expand our impact in the community. Food Bank on Wheels also provides grocery gift cards to clients we serve during the Christmas Holidays. 'We remain committed to serving our community and expanding our reach to ensure that everyone has access to nutritious food

In 2024 Food Bank on Wheels has expanded: Largely due to the Community Services Recovery Grant from the Government of Canada through SurreyCares Foundation Food Bank On Wheels has been able to grow our revenues/donations by 42%. This has allowed us to form new partnerships with donors and like minded organizations by increasing our donations of rescued/donated foods to food insecure families that we serve or our qualified donees serve. In 2024 we have formed a new partnership with The Ridge Church where we have a donation food bin that people can drop of food donations and we have the use of church space for processing donations the use of a freezer and industrial fridge to store perishable foods for our home delivered food hampers. We have started to help MR OPS/ Rain City Housing in Maple Ridge with donated/rescued foods helping unhoused individuals with food insecurities. Also we are helping Access Youth Outreach Services in Tri-Cities (Project Reach Out (PRO) a mobile service for youth to access food sundry items assisting them with donated/rescued food for their mobile service. We have also been able to help Youth Unlimited in Ridge Meadows with rescued/donated foods. We also are helping Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows Community Services - Child Care Resources & Referral Program with Baby Food & Items. Lastly FBOW is also helping Woman Care Pregnancy Centre with Baby Foods & Items as they become available. Our service is for those who live in : Port Moody Coquitlam Port Coquitlam Pitt Meadows Maple Ridge Cloverdale Surrey Delta Langley Chilliwack We remain committed to expanding our reach and are actively seeking volunteers to enable us to extend our services to Vancouver and Burnaby. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that everyone in our community has access to nutritious food and essential supplies regardless of their circumstances.