Changes are coming to the 'Kids First Food Bank' at the Windsor Homes Coalition building on Howard Ave.
Executive Director Angela Yakonich says the food bank is shifting away from a traditional food bank model and will become more of a grocery-style food bank.
She says the goal is to allow users to pick their own foods.
"We needed to expand our food bank and we decided to create a more dignified experience for our patrons by creating a grocery style food bank," says Yakonich. "So they are building a wall in the back which comes right outside of where we store everything. There will be two aisles there and they'll have shopping carts and they'll be able to pick and choose what they want instead of being, just you get what you get."
The food bank was forced to close in October, 2018 after it ran out of food.
Yakonich says after an up and down year last year, the food bank now receives regular donations from the community.
"We have monthly donors who have committed to ultimately, eternally donating to us each month," she says. "We've also created a partnership with Second Harvest which is a food rescue organization out of Toronto. They given us funding to run the program through our organization, there for we'll always have fresh foods on site."
Agents and their families from Keller Williams Realty (@kwri) are assisting with the transformation of the Kids First Food Bank on Howard Ave. The food bank is shifting to grocery store style food bank where items will be on shelves for those in need. #cklw @AM800News pic.twitter.com/v8S3Ur38bN
— Rob Hindi (@rhindi800) May 9, 2019
Yakonich says the food bank serves roughly 900 people per week.
"I mean the ultimate goal of food securities, for people to have food security," she says. "We don't want people to have to use food banks so if we could work ourselves out of a food bank then we did our job properly."
Members of Keller Williams Realty were on hand on Thursday assisting the food bank with the renovations.
It was part of their RED Day, which stands for Renew, Energize, Donate.
They helped build additional walls, install drywall and paint.