For the love of a library legacy

large. You can find his own book, The Life and Times of Charles John Crook and Family in our biography section to learn more about the Crook family and the early years of the Windermere Valley.

Healthy Kimberley’s Food Recovery Depot installs new on-site kitchen

New commercial expansion will create connection and resiliency for Columbia Basin residents

By Chadd Cawson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

This week’s column was submitted by Blair McFarlane, community outreach programmer, Invermere Public Library, which is located at 201 7th Avenue. Visit their website or call 250-342-6416 for more information.

You might remember our ‘Love of Libraries’ article early last year about one of our oldest and dearest patrons, Ray Crook, who passed away in December 2021. Ray lived to be 103 and was a lifelong library supporter, from helping us first get incorporated in 1963, to his generous donation of $11,000 left to the library in his will.

We are pleased to announce that his donation will go into the Invermere Public Library Endowment Fund. With his donation as a last act of library love, Ray is the embodiment of a legacy library supporter. The same year he helped with the incorporation into the BC Public Library Association, he also built a new bookshelf for our holds. He stopped by the library frequently with his lovely smile and a good story and accompanying photograph to share, or fresh tomatoes from his garden.

As a small way for us to honour his generosity and good spirit, we have a plaque for Ray going up on one of the non-fiction shelves. Even at 103, Ray would scoot over to the library and have a wander in the non-fiction section for his next read. He was always keen to learn something new, especially about history and humanity at

Ray is an inspiration to our entire community as a library supporter and as a helpful, kind face in town. If you feel so inclined, there are a few ways to help support the library and leave a legacy of your own. If you live in RDEK Area G (Wilmer, Dry Gulch to Spillimacheen areas) we are currently looking for a new board member. Our board members volunteer their time to help make big library decisions that help us run smoothly. Holding a board seat is a fantastic opportunity to help the library be the best it can be and to support our valley community. If you are interested, please submit a letter of application and brief resume to Tina Hlushak, corporate officer at RDEK by email at thlushak@rdek.bc.ca.

Or, like Ray, you can help us build our endowment fund. The Invermere Public Library Endowment Fund was established by the Friends of the Library eight years ago. It is housed with the Columbia Valley Community Foundation and is invested along with other community funds. The annual interest from this investment is distributed to the Friends each year and is then given to the library to support programming and material acquisition. For more information, contact Thiloma at the Columbia Valley Community Foundation. She can be reached at 250-342-2845 or info@valleyfoundation.ca.

Ray was one of a kind and we miss him dearly. It will be lovely to see his photo on our shelf everyday as a reminder for us all to support the magic of public libraries. Here’s to still being readers at 103!

Healthy Kimberley’s Food Recovery Depot (HKFRD) is serving the community in more ways than one. Creating connection and community with access to healthy food is what’s on the menu. For the past four years HKFRD has been operating out of a city-owned kitchen, but their endeavor is the development of their own on-site commercial kitchen which will increase the efficiency and volume of their meal production.

“We’ve been using an off-site, city-owned commercial kitchen, but we have outgrown the space, and the opportunity to have our own kitchen on-site is exciting,” said Shannon Duncan, food recovery coordinator. “With our own kitchen, all food and ingredients will be on-site and with less transportation needed, we can create efficiencies to work with more fresh ingredients and explore food literacy opportunities. The Depot is already such a ripe ground for bringing people together around food and being able to go one step further and offer regular workshops will be a great addition to our services.”

Located on the lower level of the Kimberley Health Centre, HKFRD has been going strong since it first opened in November 2018 and as of September, 2021 have recovered over 137,467 kilograms (kg) of whole foods that were otherwise destined for the landfill. All this food that is perfectly good to eat but not to re-sell is now redirected to community members giving them access to tons of healthy food (produce, dairy, grains, and meat). HKFRD is open to the public every Friday from 12 to 1 p.m.

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Contracted chefs have made over 22,000 servings of frozen meals from primarily recovered foods that would have otherwise gone to waste, since April 2020. Following food safety guidelines and after rigid sorting, food that has been recovered from local grocery retailers, farms, restaurants, and backyard gardens, is funnelled into their free frozen meal program. This unique service has become crucial to Kimberley residents that can not only be accessed on-site but that also have been distributed through its agency partners since 2018.

Columbia Basin Trust provided funding to support this initiative of local food production and reduction of food waste, and the plan to install the on-site commercial kitchen in the Kimberley Health Centre food recovery facility is underway. It will be an atmosphere not only to empower Columbia Basin residents, but also one for food literacy, education, and for the community to come together in camaraderie and to share their skills.

“Since we have the bones of the original hospital kitchen, we just need to install equipment and do some updating, which I’m hoping will be completed within six months,” said Duncan. “We’ve experienced such fast growth, and it’s created a need for a subsidized program where people who can’t afford market prices can pay a graduated rate for meals. It will help fuel the program in a sustainable way so we can grow into the future.”

Healthy Kimberley thrives through their dedicated volunteers. Already averaging 300 volunteer hours per month, the new kitchen will provide more learning opportunities for volunteers interested in sharpening or sharing their culinary skills, or working alongside professional contracted cooks to create an accessible, subsidized fresh meal program. For those who want to become a volunteer email Duncan at frdcoordinator@healthykimberley.com who says, “Our volunteers are the heart and soul of the entire operation.”