Deadline looms for charity trying to find new space
Posted January 30, 2013 4:42 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
PORT MOODY (NEWS) – The charity operating food banks and Christmas drives in the Tri-Cities has until tomorrow to move out of a building that’s being used to store donated toys and extra food.
Martin Wyant, CEO of Share Family says the warehouse space it uses is donated but it is also in the way of the upcoming Evergreen Line.
People are working hard today to get everything out but where to put it all is proving to be a challenge.
“You name it, nooks and crannies everywhere we can can think of. Some of it is in paid storage lockers and we have food at a whole bunch of different locations across the Tri-Cities.” says Wyant.
He adds it’s looking for a new space at least for the next year. “If we can get through a year that would give us the opportunity to put together a longer term plan.”
Wyant says it normally needs about 15,000 square feet and scaling back could also pose some challenges in the long run.
“Looking for roughly two to three thousand square feet of warehouse space as close to free as we can get because these programs we run are not government funded, they are all charitable programs so we want to make sure that we keep our costs as low as possible.”
Wyant is sure its program that provides toys to more than 2,000 kids in need at Christmas will not be impacted.
“It’s urgent and having these things stored in paid storage number one is expensive and not something we want to continue in the long run and then having the overflow food stored in multiple locations just becomes more costly too. Not because we’re paying for space but because it takes time to go and retrieve it all across the Tri-Cities and then bring it back to our main food bank when it needs to be distributed.
If you do know of any space available Wyant says you can e-mail him at martin.wyant@sharesociety.ca
