A Vancouver Island food bank says it has been a surprise beneficiary of the simmering trade war with the United States and the ensuing “buy Canadian” movement.
As shoppers have shifted their dollars away from American products, the volume of U.S. produce major grocers and wholesalers have donated to Nanaimo’s Loaves and Fishes Community Food Bank has surged.
“Anecdotally our warehouse manager estimated it at about 500 kg extra a day coming in” at the peak, Loaves and Fishes executive director Peter Sinclair said.
Sinclair said the food bank saw more and better quality produce than its donors usually were able to offer.
“We had a whole pallet of cauliflower that came through — we will get cauliflower regularly, but it was the volume in this case and just the quality of it,” he said.
“We gladly accepted and we put it to its best use and made sure people got fed with it.”
Supermarkets like Victoria’s Urban Grocer say the “buy Canadian” consumer trend has been clear.
“We noticed shortly after the tariffs came down … customers were really curious to know where their produce came from,” general manager Gary Innis said.
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“They were very, very adamant about choosing where they were going to buy their product from. As a result of that, we were able to pivot and decided to look at different sources to find either Canadian products or anything else.”
Innis said as of Monday, Urban Grocer was no longer stocking any U.S. produce. Before that, he said it was donating large volumes of U.S. produce that was nearing its best-before date to local food banks.
Loaves and Fishes supports more than 10,000 clients through its free food markets in Nanaimo and on the North Island, along with 100 partner groups and First Nations.
Volunteers at the warehouse say they’ve been thrilled to offer clients more selection.
“There’s a lot of variety available, some stuff that’s very fresh,” volunteer Jane Mackay said.
“It’s nice to know that everybody can have everything they want for a change,” added volunteer Donna Stewart.
Sinclair said the initial surge in U.S. donations has since tapered off.
Dan Huang-Taylor, executive director of Food Banks BC, said the bump in U.S. donations was good news for food banks in the short term.
But in the longer term, he warned the U.S. tariffs will likely strain an already overburdened system.
That’s because as food prices rise more people will need food banks’ help, while cash donations and food banks’ buying power will both shrink.
“Since 2019 we have seen an increase in the number of visits to food banks in BC of over 80 per cent, in the last year, the increase in the number of visits and the number of people who are using the services has increased over 15 per cent,” he said.
“This system is already buckling under the strain of demands.”
You can find out more about how to connect with or support your local food bank here.
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