Target, IGA closures impact Abbotsford food bank

ABBOTSFORD (NEWS1130) – The closure of some big stores in the Fraser Valley is having an impact that goes beyond the loss of jobs. Those businesses used to donate to local food banks, but that’s all changed.

Abbotsford lost one local IGA at the end of last month, with Target shutting its doors just a week later. Abbotsford food bank coordinator Dave Murray says losing those two big box stores is now having an impact on their supply, since they used to donate things like canned goods that had been damaged.

“You know with the closure of stores and other things, our normal supplies of reclaim an and other things from the grocery stores have finished. You are talking the loss of Target and the loss of IGA’s.”

He says he hasn’t seen a major surge in demand over the last couple of months thanks to those job loses, but says it could be coming. “Usually it takes a little while for that trickle down effect to happen. So we wouldn’t probably see that until the summertime. I think it is highly possible.”

Murray adds they’re also getting less from the National Food Sharing Program from Food Banks Canada, with about a quarter of a million dollars less food than in previous years.

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