Carol Baldwin
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Wakaw Recorder
A Capacity Boost grant from Food Banks Canada was awarded to Good Neighbours Food Centre in Rosthern recently. Funds from the grant were used to increase storage capacity by funding a basement refreshment/renovation. With the funds GNFC received, a scissor lift was purchased and installed that allows for the movement of large and heavy quantities of food items safely between the basement and the main service floor, commercial shelving units and carts were also purchased for efficient and accessible storage downstairs, and a few safety upgrades were made to the basement stairs. “The impact of these upgrades on our organization, specifically for our staff and volunteers, is phenomenal,” said Executive Director Betty Rudachyk.
The intent, of the Capacity Boost grant, is to assist food banks in improving and expanding their organizational capacity to increase the amount of perishable and non-perishable items they can accept, to better meet the needs of the community. (foodbankscanada.ca)
GNFC applied for the grant with the “hope and goal” to utilize the basement and make it a space that is more efficient, safe, and functional. Before the new scissor lift was installed, the only access to items in the basement was via the stairs and, as with many buildings of its age, the stairs were steep and had only one handrail. The majority of the volunteers at GNFC are seniors and carrying heavy boxes of potatoes or large bags of rice up and down those stairs was a safety concern. When Rudachyk first started as Executive Director, there was a conveyor system of sorts that did not work efficiently and safely, so it was sold and removed leaving a gaping hole in the floor, until, with the Capacity Boost grant, they were able to install a functional and safe freight lift that allows them to do what they wanted to do. The Food Banks Canada grant totalled $51,763.00 and, with the help of David Ratzlaff, who took on the role of project manager, GNFC was able to find the necessary contractors to complete the concrete pad for the base, the electrical, the ramps, and the ‘safe zone’ for the maintenance of the lift to name a few. Rudachyk credited Ratzlaff with taking the vision GNFC had and making it a reality that, besides improving efficiency, prioritizes the safety of the volunteers.
Ratzlaff gave the volunteers a rundown of how the lift worked on Thursday, October 10, and the design features that will keep those operating the lift safe. With an accordion gate at the top, the lift shaft cannot be accidentally accessed and another gate that is on order will fulfill the same function at the bottom of the lift. He emphasized that although the lift has a lift rating of over one tonne, it is a freight lift, first and foremost and is not meant for transporting people from one level to another alongside the product and to ride the lift is in contravention of Saskatchewan’s safety legislation. The controls are specifically designed to require two people to operate it, one at the top and one at the bottom. “Your safety and the safety of your fellow workers,” Ratzlaff reiterated, “is the main thing.”
A cold storage room already existed in the basement but was not cool enough to facilitate the keeping of root vegetables and produce and therefore was not being used as intended. Instead, the produce took up refrigerated space on the main floor and the basement cold room held non-perishables such as breakfast cereals. A donated portable air conditioner will now provide the cooling necessary for the produce to be stored in the cold room leaving the main floor refrigerated cold storage for rescued food which needs to be moved promptly. The grant also facilitated the purchase of commercial shelving to replace the mishmash of plastic shelving in the basement for non-perishable items transforming the ‘junk space’ into valuable and accessible storage where items can be organized and shelved for easy recognition of ‘Best Before’ dates. Commercial carts which can easily carry over 300 pounds to transfer from one location to another also resulted from the grant funds.
“Stairs are not my friend,” chuckled volunteer Marie Carmichael from Hague. “We usually took three people and kind of passed [the boxes] up the stairs. Now we can work faster too and get right to work, because before by the time we got it up, well…” she dropped her shoulders indicative of the exhaustion and sheer effort it took the senior women to move the stored items from the basement. The majority of volunteers are women so before the lift was installed, some of the heavier boxes would have to be left until “one of the gentlemen came in because we just don’t have the muscle,” Carmichael shared.
Operations Manager, Chanda Viczko, felt the lift will provide a rejuvenation of the volunteers’ energy as it will take away some of the extra workload experienced when one of the ‘regular’ volunteers is away for a time for their personal life. “It makes it easier on the staff as well because it is hard for me to carry potatoes and sacks of things up the stairs.”
Another goal of the Capacity Boost grant application was to increase partnerships with food rescue sites and donors of perishable items and Rudachyk stated they met that target goal. The significance of that is that GNFC now has the storage capacity to accept more of those food items and can have things for longer turnaround and storage. Additionally, the GNFC gardens provide potatoes, beets, and carrots which are harvested and stored for distribution. “What a difference this lift has made because we’re able to put our produce items onto the carts, and slowly and safely, take them down, and just wheel them into a storage area downstairs,” Rudachyk said. “It [the scissor lift] has just definitively increased our capacity for storage, which means that as we continue to roll out our Market Model here, there is a need for things to be going up and down constantly, and we’re able to do that safely and efficiently.”
When asked about the number of people they serve in a month, Rudachyk said that the monthly average is still holding around 1,000 people a month, and nearly half of that number are children. However, since the switch to the Market Model in May, they have seen an increase in the number of first-time recipients. Twenty new families registered to receive food aid in the three months of July through September, whereas in previous years they would not have seen that many over an entire year. “I just feel so strongly that it is because our market model has decreased the stigma aspect of coming for food and being able to know that people now have choices,” Betty said. “It has normalized the experience of coming down to shop and has lessened people’s resistance and anxiety around accessing food aid.”
Another thing she has noticed in recent months is an increase in the number of calls from people who need short-term aid. They find themselves suddenly without a paycheque or some unexpected expenses that have eaten what money they did have, and whereas before they may have just gone without or lived on ramen noodles, now they are reaching out, and it is not just families. Rudachyk said they serve many seniors and others who live on a very limited and insufficient income.
GNFC is a charitable organization. The majority of income to support its operations comes from donations and fundraising and they just do not have $50,000 to put toward major upgrades and improvements like this. Rudachyk emphasized how grateful GNFC is to Food Banks Canada for its support. Without the grant, it would not have been possible to purchase and install the lift.
