Saint John charity Operation Feed to wind down operations

A St. John charity is planning to end operations. Operation Feed provides dozens of bags of food to families each month and supports veterans and first responders. The charity's founder says a mix of inflation, the cost of food, and high rent led to the decision to wind down operations by the end of the year. We are currently giving out 100 bags every month. We partner with local schools. When we first started it, it was the high priority schools, and we also service the majority of the resource centres in our community. The Nick Nicole Centre, the Boys and Girls Club, we bring food to Pulse sometimes, the Crescent Valley Resource Centre. So we're trying to get as much food out to the community as possible. We were operating for the first four years out of the basement of King's Church in the valley, and they were so generous to give us the gym that's in it, which is roughly about 3,000 square feet, and the kitchen. So we signed a five-year lease and our goal was to create a wellness center that would have a gym, a peer support, a rec area, so that our volunteers, our veterans and first responders, would have a different path of healing. And unfortunately, things had developed and we were no longer allowed to have a bathroom, so we spent all this money on a building and on equipment and now for a sustainable model, the goal was to generate money through membership and in return that would be our sustainable model for our feeding program. And like I said, creating a wellness center, first of its kind, integrated veterans and first responders. But unfortunately, we just don't have the funding to move out of that building and restart. And yeah, it's going to be the end of Operation Feed. Over the last six years, I've received a degree in charitable work, a degree in purpose, and understanding what my community may or may not need in regards to healing. I'm going to, like I said, try to repurpose myself. I'm still a peer support interventionist, which I went and got myself trained during this adventure. I'm going to use that and hopefully still work with vets and first responders and create some sort of package where we can still help men and women heal after their time in service.