OLDS — The Town of Olds, Olds & District Hospice Society and the Mountain View Food Bank are talking about the possibility of the two entities moving into the municipality's former fire hall.
The concept would see the hospice society, including its Nu2U thrift store wing, and the food bank lease the space from the town for $1.
Discussions on the concept have been underway for a couple of months. All sides are now awaiting the production of architectural drawings to see how the space available could work for everyone.
“The Town’s idea is they’d lease it to us for a $1 for 40 years and then we’d be responsible for the leasehold improvements on the space and that we would share it with the Food Bank,” hospice society executive director Mary Marshall told the Albertan.
“We have agreed to split the cost of the design – like the architectural drawings on how to change the space to serve both non-profits and then we’ll be getting those drawings back in a few weeks.”
Marshall said there’s no formal agreement yet.
She said Brent Williams, the town’s chief administrative officer, is working on the concept and is expected to present it to council within the next few weeks.
Mountain View Food Bank president Tayva Graham confirmed talks have been held about the concept.
She’s intrigued by the idea.
Currently, the food bank is located in a provincial building on 50th Street near 51st Avenue. It opens to provide food for clients each Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Graham estimated that space, including a basement where they store pallets of food stuffs totals just under 6,000 square feet.
There’s no space for a waiting room for clients and parking is limited, because the parking in the area is shared not only with food bank clients but also provincial employees and their clients as well as surrounding businesses.
“For us, we definitely need a bigger space. We are really outgrowing and almost tripping over ourselves,” Graham said.
“We would love to be able to have enough space for a waiting room. We're just sort of waiting to see how it can be done.”
Graham said the food bank desperately needs more room because due to inflation and other factors, use of the food bank continues to increase at an alarming rate.
“Unfortunately (we’re) growing a lot faster than we were really anticipating, and we're definitely that type of entity that does not want to see growth. But year after year, we're seeing larger numbers,” she said.
Graham said last Tuesday, the food bank saw a record-breaking number of sign-ups by new clients. A total of 21 new clients signed up to receive food that day.
“Normally on a busy, busy day around this time of year we might see maybe nine to 10, nine to 12,” she said.
“Maybe 13 was a record before, so having 21 in one day is just brand new. It's, you know, troubling; very heartbreaking and we're probably not going to see those numbers go down, especially going into Christmas.”
Graham said ideally what the food bank would like is to have enough room to house the food bank itself as well as a waiting room and storage for the extra food on pallets, all on one level.
She agreed it’s rather awkward to have to haul up pallets of food from downstairs.
“It's not ideal at all, especially on Tuesdays when there's so many people coming in and people are waiting outside,” she said.
“That's just so wrong on so many levels. There should be a proper waiting room that might be almost an additional 1,000 square feet. That’s what we need just on top of just the regular operation.”
She thinks the parking available at the former fire hall might work better for the food bank because they wouldn’t be competing for that space with provincial employees, their clients or other businesses.
"To have a little bit less drama amongst the parking would be nice,” she said.
Graham said leasing their space for $1 would give the society more money to put into renovations to suit what they need.
She said the location of the former fire hall, on 50th Street east of 49th Avenue is also just about as central as their current location.
"I feel it would be very ideal,” she said. “Most of our clients that come in, they're on foot, so it's not too far away from our current location.”
In an email to the Albertan, Williams confirmed the details of the concept.
“The initial idea came when the province notified the town that the provincial building, which currently houses the food bank, would be soon listed for sale,” he wrote.
“The town recognizes the importance of the food bank to many people in Olds and around Mountain View County, so we are trying to help any way we can.
“Hospice had been interested in the old fire hall for some time, so we are about to hire an architect to design a plan that will hopefully help both groups utilize this space.
“There is also interest from other community groups to utilize the upstairs portion as well.”
Williams confirmed final approval of the project rests with town council.
“They have supported and approved all efforts to date,” he wrote.
Williams said some interest was expressed in the private sector to buy the former fire hall “but nothing materialized.”
“Repurposing the space for community use, and keeping both groups in the Uptowne core, makes a lot of sense to us,” he wrote.
Williams is not certain yet when renovations could begin as that is pending finalization and approval of the project.
As for the sale of the provincial building, Williams said to his knowledge it currently only contains "a small AHS office" and the food bank.
"But it hasn’t been formally listed yet, so it will probably take some time," he wrote. "I have heard (anecdotally) that this building has been for sale in the past as well."
