Bayfield food bank secures new ‘long term’ home, following year of upheaval

The Bayfield and Area Food Bank finally has a permanent home after months of searching. CTV London’s Scott Miller has the details.

It may not look like it today, but the Bayfield Public Works shed will soon be the new home of the Bayfield and Area Food Bank.

“This is fantastic because we’ve been offered a 10-year lease with the municipality to occupy a portion of this space,” said Executive Director of the Bayfield food bank Claire Trepanier.

After months of searching, the Bayfield and Area Food Bank has found its new home inside the Bayfield Public Works building across from the Bayfield Community Complex, which is the current temporary home for the food bank.

“It’s fantastic that the municipality offered us this space, because otherwise we would have nowhere to go,” said Trepanier.

Bayfield’s food bank has to vacate the dressing rooms at the Bayfield Arena by Sept. 15. They moved to the arena in April after having to leave their previous home at the Bayfield Lion’s Community Building after it was sold to make way for a new medical clinic.

They’d only moved into the Lion’s building in March of 2024. So, it’s been a year of upheaval for the food bank and its growing clientele.

“You know, it’s more about stability for our clients at this point,” said Trepanier.

While sharing a space between the Public Works department and the food bank certainly isn’t an ideal situation, it really was the best option available as the clock ticked down to the mid-September deadline for the food bank to leave its temporary home at Bayfield’s arena.

“I’ll be quite honest. This is the only option that came out of our analysis for various reasons,” said Municipality of Bluewater Coun. Bill Whetstone.

Whetstone said the municipality does have plans to move their Public Works department under one roof outside of Bayfield in the not too distant future. So, sharing the space with the food bank may not be a permanent situation.

“We’ll probably review it at different stages throughout the lease to see how things are going, and adjustments can be made as to if all of a sudden they need the whole building instead of half. Maybe we can look at what that looks like in the future,” said Whetstone.

In the meantime, Bayfield’s food bank has launched a $135,000 fundraising campaign to pay for required upgrades to their new home. Getting them started, the Bayfield Lion’s Club with a $30,000 donation.

“The Lion’s Club feels an obligation because we started off helping them, so the Lions’ unanimously decided that they would match the first $30,000 of donations,” said Ian Matthew, Bayfield Lion’s Club president.

$135,000 in upgrades may sound like a hefty price tag, but it’s less than half of what the food bank was considering spending just a couple months ago on a new build to serve their 115 monthly users.

“This is more economical. And as I said, a 10-year lease is fantastic,” said Trepanier.