It was a well-orchestrated surprise yesterday as a local business unveiled a large donation to Nourish Cowichan.
“Beyond Overwhelmed”, that’s how Nourish Cowichan Executive Director Fatima Da Silva described the unexpected.
Khowutzun Forest Services donated a truck that will be used as a mobile pantry for Nourish’s food hamper program, something CFO Mark Ashfield says has been a long-term project for Da Silva and the Nourish team.
“Fatima has had this dream for over three years now. To turn that into a more mobile pantry just to bring that sort of love out into the community as opposed to having it more central,” says Ashfield
Da Silva adds that the new truck will help Nourish give families more choices for their weekend hampers.
“I want the families to have a choice. I didn’t like seeing children carrying weekend bags home so the mobile pantry is going to slowly take the weekend bags away and families can choose,” she says.
The new pantry truck will park in different spots so families can pick up food and will slowly start to replace the current weekend food hamper program.
Nourish Cowichan provided 700,000 meals to students last year along with the weekend hamper program.
