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Kamloops  

Kamloops COVID Meal Train delivers 16,000 meals in two months

16,000 meals in two months

The Kamloops COVID Meal Train has been rolling across the city for the last 65 days or so, providing breakfast and lunch to those who need it most. 

In that time, volunteers have handed out 16,000 meals. That's an average of 250 meals a day.

Coordinator Glenn Hilke says the program's success comes from the support of the community. He tells Castanet the meal train has spent $8,000 on food ($5,000 in monetary donations and $3,000 in in-kind donations) so far.

"Just a half an hour ago, a woman showed up at my door and handed me a $250 cheque and emptied her car out from Costco, which was loaded up with everything that we need," he says, noting he put a callout on Facebook the day before, for supplies. 

"Tim Hortons just came on board too," he adds.

The meal train, which is entirely volunteer run, started shortly after COVID-19 hit. Volunteers do everything from shopping for the ingredients and preparing the food, to driving and distributing. Hilke's front porch acts as "donation station."

The clientele includes the street community as well as those living in motels and at other sites where there's no meal program.

Hilke notes the number of people on the receiving end has increased dramatically since the launch.

"It's doubled since we began," he says.

Something that's become very clear over the last few weeks is just how many people live in motels, Hilke says.

"I've seen families of four or five just living in one room... and we're not talking about the Coast Hotel here."

Hilke references a position paper by the Kamloops Food Policy Council, one that advocates for three community meals a day on both sides of the river, "to properly address the needs of our city" and ensure there's food security.

"Right now, on any given day without the meal train... like today (Friday), for example, there would be one lunch on the North Shore, one lunch downtown and then one supper downtown and that's it. So no breakfast, no supper on the North Shore."

Hilke suspects the meal train will carry on beyond 2020, given the fact it's filling a void. He says he's applying for some funding to help it move along in the long-term.

Besides feeding those who are hungry and hurting, the meal train has been beneficial for the volunteers.

"It’s been an incredible experience for them, I think, to understand... the depth of the complexities of homelessness and addiction and poverty in our city," Hilke says. "What they really achieved, individually and as a group, is a new level of compassion."



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