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No need to hoard: Nelson grocery stores say they will stay stocked despite floods

The majority of food is coming from Alberta and the Creston Valley
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Nelson grocery stores including Kootenay Co-op say they are mostly unaffected by supply chain issues following flooding that has cut off the Lower Mainland from the Interior. File photo

Nelson grocery stores say they aren’t concerned about keeping their shelves stocked even as flooding in the Lower Mainland impacts the provincial supply chain.

Safeway manager Jamie Simpson said Thursday some customers have been buying up supplies similar to how they reacted when the province first went into a COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, but that isn’t necessary this time.

“The majority of our stuff is sourced out of Alberta, there are no road closures and supply is fine. There’s no need to panic, because we’re not sourcing out of the Lower Mainland.”

Real Canadian Wholesale Club also receives most of its stock from Alberta.

A spokesperson for Save-On-Foods, meanwhile, said deliveries continue to be made to its Nelson location and that customers can shop as they normally would.

“Our teams are doing their best to keep the shelves full through alternate routes and we encourage everyone to be patient and to be kind to each other and to our team members.”

The majority of Kootenay Co-op’s products are delivered from the Lower Mainland, but general manager Ari Derfel says the store isn’t running out of food.

“Certainly there are things we run out of but when it comes to communities needing calories, not a problem.”

The flooding in the Fraser Valley has rocked the province’s dairy and meat industries.

In Chilliwack, farmers are dumping thousands of litres of milk daily because it can’t be delivered out for pasteurization.

Agriculture minister Lana Popham said Wednesday that thousands of livestock have already died and more will have to be euthanized.

Derfel said the flooding shows the importance of local food security. The co-op relies on the Creston area, for example, for its dairy and meat products.

“It’s further inspiration to continue to re-localize and re-regionalize and rebuild food infrastructure that we’ve lost over the last 100 years to be more resilient, because we’re going to see more events like this.”

READ MORE:

Number of sites, looming winter, complicate ‘unprecedented’ B.C. highway repairs

600 pigs and more than 100 dogs rescued from Interior B.C. flood zones

West Kootenay project blends agriculture and forestry

@tyler_harper | tyler.harper@nelsonstar.com
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Tyler Harper

About the Author: Tyler Harper

I’m editor-reporter at the Nelson Star, where I’ve worked since 2015.
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