A Vancouver Island window company said they feel lucky to be in a position where they can donate money to local food banks.
$42,150, to be exact.
Van Isle Windows, which has locations in Nanaimo, Victoria and Courtenay, re-opened their stores after closing due to COVID-19 and realized they were one of the lucky ones.
“Although we had to come back to work under pretty strict protocols, we’re some of the fortunate ones that could come back and actually have employment,” said general manager, Linda Gourlay.
The idea to donate the money came to Gourlay when she was driving home from work one day. She said the radio was talking about food banks on the Island – how as demand went up, donations were going down.
“So, came back to work the next day and I talked to some of the other managers and our sales manager and said, we’ve done some really creative ways of providing contests, or whatever in the past… maybe we just need to start focusing on donating to the food banks,” said Gourlay.
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Gourlay and the rest of the team figured out that donating $25 per window to the food banks would be the best way to do it.
Cheques for $7,025 each were given to Food Banks in Courtenay, Cobble Hill/Mill Bay/Shawnigan, Nanaimo, Victoria’s Mustard Seed, St Vincent De Paul and Living Edge Community. Gourlay said they’ve added Sooke to the list as well and are working on getting that money out. She said the response so far has been great.
“All the food banks have just been ecstatic,” she said. “They were just so, so, so appreciative and it makes you feel good and you know that it’s going to local folks who are struggling right now, there’s a lot of people unemployed right now.”