New van helps agency meet changing demands

The Gospel Mission in Kelowna has a brand new outreach van thanks to the generosity of the community.

On Thursday (Mar. 25), the mission will be loading up the van with lunch that will be served at Queensway, behind the bus loop, to people experiencing homelessness.

In March 2020, due to COVID-19, the mission made the difficult decision to restrict their dining room meal service to residents only, but letting people go hungry was not an option.

“We increased our outreach team and started serving three meals a day out of the back of our outreach mini van in various locations around town,” Troy McKnight, the mission’s corporate and community relations officer, said. “As COVID-19 continued and people experiencing homelessness grew, it became clear that the mini van was no longer a viable option to accommodate the number of meals needed.”

The agency reached out to donors and were overwhelmed by the response.

“The Kelowna community put their resources together to purchase and outfit the new vehicle. With all the bad news in our world today, this was an incredible show of support for people in need in our community,” McKnight added.

Martin Ficke, a fabricator who works for Discovery Glass, donated his time to fabricate a state-of-the-art storage and serving system which will meet the needs of the community for years to come.

The mission is thanking its outreach van sponsors, which includes the Sawatzky Family Foundation, KRM, Gorman Bros Lumber Ltd., Nor-Val Rentals, MBW, Sentes Automotive, Paul Cluff Real Estate, Discovery Glass and Joel Kern from RE/MAX Kelowna.