After running informally in a church basement for some time, the Columbia Valley Food Bank was incorporated in November, 2000, shortly after moved to the basement of the old RCMP/Library building, and in November 2019 opened its new building located at 201 B 7th Ave in Invermere (across the main road from the Columbia Valley Centre).  

The CVFB's mission is to provide access to healthy food for individuals and families in the Columbia Valley, from Spillimacheen to Canal Flats.  

From its inception the CVFB was organized and run by volunteers, and funded nearly entirely by donations.  In 2014 the demand had grown enough to take on one paid employee, a part time coordinator responsible for doing client intake and organizing volunteers.  Currently we have a group of over 50 volunteers serving clients, making hampers, shopping, shelving, helping at special events, cleaning, collecting donations, and gathering boxes, among other tasks.  A board of up to 9 directors makes administrative decisions alongside a newly hired Executive director (as of February 2023).

Once every 30 days clients may pick up a hamper designed to provide a week's worth of food for every member of the family. When necessary, one emergency hamper can be requested within 30 days, to support households who need a little extra help. The hampers include milk and eggs, bread, canned fruits, vegetables and beans, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, tuna, soup, as well as juice, coffee/tea, peanut butter, carrots, potatoes, onions, cereal, pasta, crackers, margarine, chicken, beef, pork and wild meat (when available). We also stock Grey's Cupboard funded by the Greyson Tufts Memorial Fund, that ensures gluten free options are available for anyone in the valley requiring support for their dietary restrictions.

As a result of our food recovery initiative, in partnership with local grocers, we have increased our offering to include various frozen items including fish, veggies, fruits and prepared meals. We also provide household supplies and toiletries when available as well as cat and dog food. We partner with Rocky River Grill and Station Pub from October to April each year, to offer house-made frozen soups. And when available we provide cheese, fresh garden veggies, toiletries, diapers and baby food, and an assortment of other options.

In 2014 we provided 637 hampers for 1089 adults and 548 youth at a cost of $78.51 per hamper.  In 2019 we provided 984 hampers for 1859 adults and 989 youth at a cost of $96.87 per hamper. Fast forward to 2023 we provided 1216 hampers to 2038 adults and 1011 youth. This is an increase of 33% of hampers distributed since 2022. We have yet to determine the cost per hamper this year, as our food recovery initiative has recovered nearly 80,000 lbs of food in 2023, and supplements our food cost budget.

In addition to our hamper program, the CVFB supports a number of other initiatives in the Columbia Valley, including the School Food Program which in 2023 looked a bit different with recent funding from the Goverment of BC to school lunch and breakfast programs. Instead, local families in need were provided meal kits during the holiday season to reduce their grocery bill. We look forward to working with the Community Links Worker who covers the Windermere Zone, to diversify this program in 2024. Support was also provided to cover expenses for some school lunch programs for Parent Advisory Councils. The Healthy Eating program continues to provide healthy snacks for children at all the locally registered Day Care centres, and the Women's Shelter program can purchase any necessary food items for families in crisis. We also distributed Farmers Market Nutrition Coupons, supported families in outlying communities through our monthly delivery service and have launched a senior's only day, to better support seniors in need of our services.  We also look forward to offering a School Lunch Bag program again (providing healthy snack and lunches for students who no longer have access to those through school programs).

The Columbia Valley Food Bank looks forward to the developments 2024 holds, so that we can continue to achieve our mission of Relieving Hunger in the Columbia Valley. Thank you for your continued support.