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Financial boost for Penticton seniors food program

The Government of Canada is providing $25,000 towards supporting healthier food choices for low-income seniors in Penticton.

The Government of Canada is providing $25,000 towards supporting healthier food choices for low-income seniors in Penticton.

The funding comes from the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Senior’s program and will partially go towards the community garden and community kitchen programs put on by the Penticton branch of the Salvation Army and the Penticton Food Bank.

The funding will also help indirectly with other healthy food programs in Penticton according to program coordinator with the Salvation Army Barbara Stewart.

“Broadly, it is to provide healthier food choices for low-income seniors, so we’re looking at a lot of ways to do that,” Stewart said.

“It means that we can continue on full steam ahead with our goal we’ve been working towards for a couple years now, and that’s to address the quality of the food available here at the food bank, and ensure we have more fresh produce available.”

Stewart added that the Food Bank is looking to have more fresh vegetables in stock in particular.

“We’ve been working hard towards that for at least two or three years now,” Stewart said.

To help stock the Food Bank with fruits and vegetables, a gleaning project was started where youth are tasked with gleaning local vegetable gardens and orchards.

There are also programs at the community kitchen focusing on food preservation lessons to preserve some of the locally-grown food from the community garden.

The New Horizons for Seniors program was created by the Government of Canada to support social participation and inclusion of seniors, promote volunteerism among seniors and engage seniors in their community through the mentoring of others.

Anyone is interested in helping out with the community garden can contact Stewart 250-492-4788.