West Kelowna

Photo: John O'Connor

Westside Community Foodbank interim general manager Grant MacWilliam with some the food donated by customers of Nutri-lawn.

A Kelowna company that normally helps feed lawns has stepped in this Thanksgiving to feed people, thanks to its customers.

Employees with Nutri-lawn, a Canadian lawn-care company, backed a truck up and unloaded over 1,800 pounds of food to the Westside Community Foodbank Thursday afternoon.

As part of the company’s “re: nourish” program, which is aimed at giving back to the community in which they serve, employees asked customers from Vernon to Penticton throughout September if they had any food they were willing to leave for local food banks.

The employees would pick up the food after completing lawn-care jobs.

“Each guy would come back with 60 to 70 pounds of food each day, so it added up,” explains Kevin MacKenzie, Nutri-lawn sales manager for the Okanagan region.

“We started four years ago, and it seems to be going good every year.”

For Westside Community Foodbank, the generous donations couldn’t have come at a better time, as the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons are typically the busiest for food banks. The Westside food bank also reports that it receives seven to 10 new families a week.

Foodbank interim manager Grant MacWilliam says staff was very pleased with the Nutri-lawn donation.

“We’re doing over 200 families a month,” he explains. “At Christmas time, it’ll be even higher….”

MacWilliam estimates that the bank gives out Christmas hampers for 265 families.

“You get a lot of people coming to the food bank who are the working poor…and people on disability who are restricted by government.”