The answer has come within minutes for the Regional Food Distribution Association, after it publicly asked for a place to make food hampers.
Executive Director Volker Kromm tells us the Thunder Bay airport is donating the former ACT Labs hanger, which he says has lots of space. “So we’ll be able to bring co-horts of volunteers. We’re generally about 4-6 people that are coming in at a time to make hampers, and then there’ll be a wipe down, and then the next pod comes in, probably not right afterwards.”
Airport CEO Ed Schmidke tells us they’ve enlisted the help of Synergy North and Enbridge Canada to help run the over 17,000 square foot building.
“It’s still going to be, because of its size, a rather expensive building to run from a utilities perspective. My understanding from the RFDA is that transportation costs are rising on them, so we did reach out to a few friends,” says the airport CEO.
He adds the RFDA needed help since COVID-19 restricted them making hampers in their smaller building. Impala Canada employees will also help make the hampers, and Fiera Capital.