Pamela Burt
VFR: Pamela, tell us about yourself, your path to working in the food security space, and your current role with Salvation Army (SA) Boundless Vancouver.
Pamela Burt: Hello! I’m Pam, the Food Program Manager at Salvation Army (SA) Boundless Vancouver, and I’ve been with SA for the last 4.5 years, and this role has really been the first time I have worked in the nonprofit space. Before SA, my background was quite focused on entrepreneurship. I opened a consignment store that sold both new and used baby and children’s toys and clothes. While running the store, I noticed that customers were interested in local and natural products, and I started seeking out these types of children’s items, and eventually selling them at our store. I also started working with the creators of these items to support them with product representation, branding, and the legal side of their businesses. I did this work for many, many years.
While the food security space is relatively new to me, my passion for food began early. My relationship with food has been a journey throughout my entire life: in different ways, I’ve been connected to and working in the food sector for over 30 years. The first books I wanted to read were cookbooks, and I was doing all the cooking for my family in elementary school, even doing the grocery shopping. When I came out of high school, I wanted to become a chef, and one of the jobs I had in the food industry was cooking for tree planters up North. I cooked out of the back of a one-ton truck, and I made everything from scratch, right down to the condiments. The workers were treated to some excellent meals – they ate like kings and queens!
I also got pregnant later in life, and during this time I wanted to spend more time at home with my child. At this point, I went back to school to become a culinary nutritionist. I had a desire to nourish people through healthy food and to also teach people how to cook well for themselves. I started teaching cooking classes out of my home. Later, as my daughter got a bit older, I decided I wanted to go back to work full-time and applied to all different kinds of jobs. I got a job with SA at their toy store, but it was just an 8-week contract position, a pilot project (they hired me on the spot given my background with children’s toys!).
I felt so energized and excited by the work at SA, the sense of service and community, that I asked if they had any full-time positions available. At the time, they didn’t, but in April 2019 a full-time food coordinator position opened up, and I went down that day, and they hired me right away. I’ve been with SA ever since, and I’ve now been promoted to the manger level.
VFR: Tell us more about SA Boundless Vancouver's food program, particularly the impactful hub-and-spoke model and how VFR volunteers support this program.
PB: When I first started with SA as the food coordinator, back in 2019, SA was purchasing most of its food; but within a few months, we started getting most of our food donated. I was on a mission! I started driving around and popping into grocery stores and wholesalers to see if they would donate their food. I started calling food stores as well, and many businesses started responding. As the food donations started coming in, we knew we needed to expand our capacity to receive food, so we thankfully got a grant to get a walk-in cooler.
Soon after this time, COVID-19 hit, and everything changed. Before COVID, we were serving hot breakfasts during the week, providing emergency food hampers 4-5 times per year, and we had a food market that required no appointment and no ID (low barrier).
Our food program blew up during COVID. We went from serving 60-100 people at the market each week to serving 300-400 people every week. We started running the market three days per week just to keep up. All SA staff pivoting to supporting the food program at that time because that is where all efforts were needed. We were just trying to keep up with the need. Every week, line-ups went around the block, with people lining up from 6 am onwards.
To manage the demand, we made premade bags of food. It took us most of the day to prep for the market, and then we would stack them in the walk-in cooler. There were always hundreds of bags in that cooler, stacked from floor to ceiling. I’d also like to give a special shout out to Food Stash Foundation during this time. One day, one of their drivers saw the line-up outside SA Boundless and pulled over to ask about our program. The Food Stash driver gave us all the food donations they had. Food Stash started dropping off for SA twice per week, and these extra donations were a lifeline during that period.
After COVID settled down, we were able to bring our market back. We also started thinking more deeply about serving the residents that came to the market. It really became more about building relationships with individuals accessing the market and understanding their needs. Why were they needing to access the market? How could we support them on their path to greater security and financial independence, to the point where they didn’t need to use the market?
This is where the Pathways to Hope Program comes in. This program offers one-on-one counselling and other supportive services, including English language training. It’s about providing individualized and holistic support; we’re going beyond just food programming. Individuals typically stay in the program for about one year, and we provide them with steady and consistent support throughout this time.
At SA, we also work with other community partners that need food. South Vancouver is really one of the forgotten areas of Vancouver – there are just so few services here for residents to access within the neighbourhood.
This is where Vancouver Food Runners has been a huge support to us, as VFR volunteers help to get the food from our Boundless Vancouver location to other sites that need food donations. In addition, Food Runners volunteers have been involved in bringing food donations from food businesses, like Urban Fare and No Frills, to Boundless as well, which has been a massive help to our organization.
I was able to connect with Chloe Leslie at VFR, and she started setting up the food rescues, and it has been such a blessing to have this food transport support. It saves us a lot of time, energy, and resources to have these donations dropped off for our programming – a big thank you to VFR volunteers for all this work!
VFR: With rental costs being so high in Vancouver, finding a location to operate a food program can be challenging for nonprofits. Is this something that SA's program has struggled with, and what are you hearing from other organizations operating food programs on this issue?
PB: Let me tell you, the location piece is a struggle. At SA, we’re in the middle of a renovation right now at the Boundless location and trying to find a place in Vancouver to operate, within the same neighbourhood, was so challenging.
First of all, rent is incredibly expensive in Vancouver, as everyone knows. For charities and nonprofits trying to run essential and much-needed food programs on a tight budget, it is so hard to find affordable spaces to operate out of. And then there are other elements, like the fact that there will be a lot of food on site, and there will be community members being served (both inside the building and potentially lined up outside the building). These are considerations that might make some building owners pause.
Thank goodness for Food Stash, though (again!). While the renovations are going on, we’re able to operate out of the Food Stash location part-time for one year; and the Church of Nazarene has been helpful as well, as we’re operating out of this space five days per week now. All our SA staff now work at the Church site.
But, again, having to split our operations between two sites for one year demonstrates how tricky it is to operate a food program in Vancouver. We’re optimistic, though! At the Church, we have an EDS trailer out back where we provide daily service, such as emergency hampers, sandwiches, and cold drinks. We’re even going to start having BBQs soon — we’ll be able to provide outdoor community meals, which will be lovely with the summer months coming.
VFR: How can folks support the work of SA Boundless Vancouver?
PB: Volunteers are really the heart of our organization, so if you are interested in volunteering with SA’s food program, you can explore opportunities here:
https://salvationarmyvancouver.com/volunteer/
We really do have the most wonderful volunteers, and we are so grateful to everyone who gets involved. I’d like to give special mention to Yongshan, one of our lead volunteers who joined us during COVID. He is 86 years old, and he volunteers with us Monday through Friday and works full days lifting 50-pound boxes. He doesn’t speak very much English, but we’re great friends nonetheless; and he spoils my daughter and treats her like gold. Many of our volunteers, like Yongshan, have been with us for years, and we’re like family now. SA is a special place to volunteer.
You can also make financial donations here: https://salvationarmyvancouver.com/donate/
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