In 1982 several of the churches
in Richmond recognized that there was a growing need to address
hunger in the community and the Richmond Presbyterian Church started
collecting food, stockpiling it for future use. Then in 1983 the
St Alban's Church called a meeting of all the churches and other
interested parties to discuss how to distribute the food.
On March 6 1983 the Richmond Food Bank was opened
in Howard De Beck School, staffed with St Albans and Richmond
Presbyterian Church members. Twenty families were served that
day.
Initial financial support for the Richmond Food
Bank was provided by Progressive Contracting and John's Husky
at 3 Rd and Blundell. Progressive donated the use of a truck and
$1000 each month and John's Husky donated gas. Also, McGavin's
bakery donated as many as 300 loaves of bread each week.
In August of 1985 the Food Bank moved to the corner
of Lynas Lane and Granville.
And in 1993 the RFB was incorporated as a society.
In August 1992 the move was made to #135 12417 No.
2 Road in the Steveston Industrial Park. Then in April 2002 we
moved across the parking lot to #7 12491 No. 2 Road to a 50% larger
location.
A grant from the WCB's Helping Hands group allowed us to purchase new pallet racking and an electric forklift to allow us to take advantage of this additional space.
In late August 2007 we moved to our new home at 100 - 5800 Cedarbridge Way, a larger more centrally located site with better bus service.
All the moves were made without missing a distribution day due to the hard work of the volunteers.
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