Pallets of food at Food Depot Alimentaire in Moncton, N.B. (photo supplied by FDA)
It’s been a busy year for Food Depot Alimentaire, which now handles distribution for all 60 provincial food banks.
Executive Director Chantal Senecal said the process began about three years when the depot began serving as the distribution hub for food banks in southeastern New Brunswick because of their warehouse capacity and administrative support.
The membership of New Brunswick food banks voted to have them take over distribution in July.
Senecal says the process was expedited because of the pandemic.
“We fast-tracked a lot of that development because we were receiving federal funding and it had to be administered to New Brunswick for the food banks. So all the funding came to us and we were able to push that out to all the food banks across the province,” Senecal said.
Senecal said their distribution efforts were kickstarted by a $2-million donation from J.D. Irving and the McCain Foundation because of the pandemic.
“We created a transportation program that would allow us to deliver food every week door to door to every single food bank across the province and we’ve been doing since April,” Senecal said.
Senecal says in addition to the provincial food banks, they also service shelters, soup kitchens and 26 school breakfast programs in the southeast region.
Follow
