JOHN JANTAK
The 1510 West
The West Island Assistance Fund (WIAF) – one of three food bank operators in the region – is hoping to acquire the former federal post office building in Roxboro to consolidate its operations into one building, providing a permanent home for the non-profit group since a fire in 2019 left it scrambling for space to operate from.
“It wouldn’t require a lot of changes and doesn’t need a lot of improvements for what we want to do,” said Michael Labelle, president of WIAF board of directors, referring to the building on Centre Commercial Street. “It would easily double the space that we have now.”
“It has a basement, too, so there’s a possibility of using it for storage,” Labelle added. “It’s fully functional and has wheelchair access, so it’s fully adapted. It’s a federal building, so we don’t need to put a lot into it and it would allow us to expand our operations.”
After a fire in December 2019 completely destroyed its former headquarters, which was also on Centre Commercial Street, including its ground-floor thrift shop and second-floor offices, the non-profit organization moved its store into another nearby building about a block away, where it now also operates its food bank.
The problem is the building that housed its offices and thrift shop before the fire had 6,300 square feet of floor space. The thrift shop is now crammed into a space of only 4,000 square feet, which also houses the group’s food distribution centre.
The organization has also been renting office space in a building across the street.
The WIAF will sell the empty lot of its former headquarters – which has been converted into a temporary community garden – to help fund the purchase of the former post office property.
“We’ve been around since 1966 and proven our ability to come back from a fire,” Labelle said. “We’ve hired a consultant to prepare a business plan to purchase the building.”
The organization can’t keep functioning in temporary premises, he said.
The organization distributes about 680 food baskets each month – just over 8,100 food baskets yearly.