The Salvation Army has rolled out a major part of its Community Response Unit, as a mobile food truck is up and running in Grande Prairie.
Captain Peter Kim says they’ve spent the last 20 days in Fort Vermillion helping out evacuees of the spring flood, and says the timing to get back into the city couldn’t have been more vital.
“The community kitchen in the Friendship Centre needed to be shut down, so we are filling in the gap with the canteen that was designed for both emergency disaster and local services.”
Captain Kim says a team of three to five people provide healthy meals packaged in to-go containers to keep both staff and members of the public safe while adhering to social distancing. He adds it’s a difficult time for everyone in the social services sector, but knows the extra effort to help out those in need is well worth.
“We gave out 4,260 meals just before we came back so… in that 20 day time we gave out that many meals, breakfast lunch and supper for evacuees,” he says. “We just had the weekend to prep and now we are back on to feed lunch and supper in our own community to be able to meet that need.”
The food truck is parked behind the Salvation Army food bank location at 9615 102 Street in Grande Prairie.