Nanaimo Food Bank Launches $750,000 Matching Campaign to Help Complete New Distribution Warehouse

Subhadarshi Tripathy

6/26/20264 min read

A major fundraising campaign is now underway in Nanaimo as one of British Columbia’s largest regional food distribution organizations works to complete a warehouse project it says could dramatically expand access to food across Vancouver Island and the south coast.

Loaves and Fishes, the Nanaimo-based food bank network that supplies food to 44 communities, has announced a new donation-matching partnership worth up to $750,000 as it seeks to raise the final $1.5 million needed to complete construction on its new food distribution warehouse.

Under the campaign, every dollar donated over the next 24 months will be matched by the Tom Harris Foundation, up to the full $750,000 amount. The combined goal is to generate the remaining funds needed to finish the project without taking on debt that could cut into future food programming.

For Loaves and Fishes executive director Peter Sinclair, the campaign is about more than bricks and mortar. It is about protecting and expanding the organization’s ability to serve communities where food insecurity is growing and grocery costs continue to climb.

A Project Years in the Making

Loaves and Fishes has grown significantly since its early years, evolving into a regional food distribution hub that now moves food into communities across a large stretch of coastal British Columbia.

Sinclair says the organization currently distributes about $12 million worth of food each year through its existing warehouse, but the new facility will allow it to do far more. Once complete, the new warehouse is expected to quadruple the amount of food the organization can move to its partner communities.

That expansion is especially important for remote and smaller towns, where transportation challenges, high food prices and limited local supply can make fresh food harder to access.

Sinclair said the relationship with the Harris family goes back to the organization’s early development. When Loaves and Fishes first received funding from the City of Nanaimo in 2012 to purchase its first distribution truck, it was Tony Harris of the Harris Auto Group who helped connect the food bank with the five-ton truck that got the operation moving.

Now, more than a decade later, the Harris family is helping once again through the Tom Harris Foundation.

“They’ve seen the direction, the vision, and they wanted to be part of it,” Sinclair said. “We are overjoyed to have them.”

Avoiding Debt, Protecting Programs

The new matching campaign is also intended to prevent the organization from having to rely on large loans or mortgage debt to complete the build.

Sinclair says that without the matched donations, Loaves and Fishes would likely face financial obligations that could affect day-to-day operating costs and limit the number of programs it could offer.

That would create pressure not just in Nanaimo, but across the wider network of communities that now depend on the organization for food access.

By contrast, completing the warehouse through fundraising would allow Loaves and Fishes to direct more of its future resources toward food distribution itself, rather than loan repayment.

Remote Communities Stand to Benefit

The impact of the project is being watched closely far beyond Nanaimo.

In Port Hardy, where Loaves and Fishes has been supplying food since 2020, local leaders say the warehouse expansion could make a meaningful difference for families already struggling with sharply rising grocery costs.

Mayor Pat Corbett Labatt said the project is especially important for the North Island, where food options can be limited and prices high.

In Port Hardy, she noted, residents rely heavily on a single grocery store, making affordable alternatives critically important for households trying to manage their budgets.

She said she has already seen the effect Loaves and Fishes has had in the community over the past several years, including a noticeable reduction in food insecurity since the organization began bringing food to the area.

For smaller and more remote communities, the potential gains may be even greater.

Leslie Dyck, Loaves and Fishes’ community co-ordinator in Port Hardy, said a larger warehouse could improve the organization’s ability to move food to places like Zeballos, where products often arrive with very little shelf life remaining.

That matters not only for pantry staples, but for access to fresh fruits and vegetables, which can be especially difficult to maintain in isolated communities.

Building for Rising Need

The warehouse project comes at a time when food banks and community food providers across Canada are facing sustained demand driven by inflation, housing pressures, and the rising cost of essentials.

For Loaves and Fishes, the new building is intended to respond to that pressure with scale and stability.

Construction on the project began in 2024 and has already received support from multiple levels of government. The land was provided by the City of Nanaimo, while additional funding has come from the regional district, the provincial government and the federal government.

Sinclair says the warehouse is expected to be operational by the end of July, assuming the final funding can be secured and construction completed on schedule.

More Than a Building

For supporters of the project, the warehouse is not simply a storage facility. It represents a major piece of food security infrastructure for a wide geographic region.

A larger, more efficient distribution hub could mean more food delivered, fresher products reaching distant communities, and fewer limitations on what Loaves and Fishes can provide through its partner network.

It could also help insulate the organization from financial strain at a time when charitable providers are increasingly being asked to do more with finite resources.

With the matching campaign now launched, Loaves and Fishes is effectively asking donors to help close the final gap — not only to complete a construction project, but to strengthen a system that many communities have come to depend on.

For remote towns, working families and people navigating rising grocery bills, the stakes are practical and immediate.

And for Loaves and Fishes, the message is clear: finishing the warehouse means building the capacity to feed far more people, far more effectively, in the years ahead.

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