The Barrie Food Bank (BFB) unveiled its new refrigerated van on Tuesday, which the organization says marks a significant investment in both student nutrition and community food recovery.
The BFB says the new vehicle will play a critical role in supporting its School Fuel Program, which now serves 34 local schools and 8,578 children with access to healthy snacks.
"The schools spend their Eat Well to Excel ministry money with us. We have a curated list of about 35 healthy snack options that they can order, and then with the help of the sponsors, we discount it, and it costs 25 per cent less, " explained BFB executive director Karen Shuh. "We order it, procure it, organize it, and we deliver to schools every two weeks."
In March, 37 per cent of individuals using the service of the food bank were children, but Shuh says just one in five people who are food insecure make it to the food bank, so in the case of these young people, the organization has to meet them where they are, and that's in school.
This van will be the third in the food bank's line-up of vehicles, and when they aren't delivering to schools, they will be assisting with food recovery.
"We will have three vans on the road, up to six days a week, visiting 14 grocery stores, plus local farms, recovering food that would otherwise go to waste," Shuh explains.
Last year, the BFB recovered over 1.7 million pounds of food, including more than 700,000 pounds of nutritious perishable items diverted from waste.
The new van received support from Food Banks Canada with funding through the 2025 School Food Infrastructure Fund, alongside support from local community partners.
The community partners featured on the van include:
- Canada One Auto Group
- Rotary Club of Barrie
- The Pavlik Foundation
- The Rotary Club of Barrie - Huronia
- Kempenfelt Rotary Club
- Faris Team Real Estate Brokerage
- RBC Foundation
- Mayes-Martin
In March, the food bank had 8,007 visits, a 12 per cent year-over-year increase, of which 377 were first-time visits, up 30 percent from 2025.
