Skip to content

New home for Sylvan Lake Community Food Bank

The Food Bank has moved to the Seventh Day Adventist Church’s basement
8290470_web1_170828-SLN-M-Food-Bank

The Sylvan Lake Community Food Bank has moved out of the church’s basement into a new home.

Now located next to the outdoor skating rink at the Four Seasons Park, the Food Bank has been working out of its new location for about two months.

“We moved in at the end of of June. I’m happy we are here now, but I was a little nervous about the move,” said Pam Towers, a volunteer at the food bank.

While the move may have been nerve-wrecking the process was actually fairly smooth.

Towers says there were lots of people from around the community who came out to help move everything from the basement of the Seventh day Adventist Church to the new location.

The daunting task of moving the fridges and freezers was taken care of by a couple volunteers with trucks.

Volunteers from all over came to help move all the food to the new location as well.

“There were so many people who came to help, not just from the church but from everywhere, we couldn’t tell who was taking what,” Towers said.

With the number of volunteers ready to help, Towers said the move only took a few hours, not including the unpacking and sorting.

The Food Bank moved into the new location, which used to be a day care, after it was renovated to suit their purposes.

The renovation was donated by an Adventist group out of Lacombe. Towers said the Food Bank Board paid for the materials used.

The renovations on the building are not yet completely done, according to Towers.

There is an extra room that will be redone, though she isn’t sure yet what it will be used for.

Out back, the Food Bank has a small yard space which it is hoping to utilize.

“We are thinking about putting in some raised beds and planting some fruit and vegetables,” explained Towers.

The move to a new location was based on a few reasons, Towers says.

The Seventh Day Adventist was looking to add more ministries, but didn’t have the room with the Food Bank taking over the basement.

Also, having the Food Bank in the basement caused some concerns with mobility and ease of access.

“Here we are all on one level and mostly wheel chair accessible. It is much easier to get your hamper here then in the church’s basement,” said Towers.

With a larger space Tower says the working conditions are also much better.

Before, the volunteers were a little cramped while they put together hampers each week.

“It is just better working conditions for us. We aren’t so cramped here.”

With the new location, the Food Bank may look into being open more often, or atlas longer hours. Currently the Food Bank is only open Wednesday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon.

“We have lots of plans, and things are still up in the air. We’ll see what we do,” said Towers.

The Sylvan Lake Community Food bank serves the communities of Sylvan Lake, Benalto and Bentley.

To date, the Sylvan Lake Food Bank has created 683 hampers for families in need.