Construction crews working on major downtown condo tower project Kelownain British Columbia, have flocked to a food truck next to the site for breakfasts and lunches in recent months.

“Very, very good. Delicious bacon and everything,” said construction worker Cary Nikolaisen as he ate his breakfast sandwich during a quick break Wednesday morning.

Unlike most food truck operations which are private businesses, this one is run by a homeless shelter.

The Gospel Mission is setting up its restaurant next to the Water Street By The Park construction site, where two towers are under construction.

“Operating a food truck is not far from our goal,” said Carmen Rempel, executive director of Gospel Mission. “We have a centralized kitchen where we provide over 700 meals a day anyway, so by adding prep to that, it’s a complementary service that we can turn into a social enterprise. »

The Gospel Mission acquired two trucks thanks to grants a few years ago.

One is used as an awareness vehicle, but the other has not been used to its full potential until now.

“The construction workers have been incredibly supportive,” said Jeremy Luypen, Gospel food services director. “Every day we’re open, they come, they look forward to it, and they’re happy to support us.”

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The money earned at the food truck goes directly to the services of the Gospel Mission.

“So it’s our outreach team that meets with homeless people outside and funds our transitional employment program,” Rempel said.

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The food truck has been operational on the site since April and has proven to be very profitable.

“In our first quarter, first quarter revenue, we made over $30,000,” Rempel said.

That’s a significant amount of money for a nonprofit that relies on public grants and donations to operate.

“Grants can be sporadic. We don’t know if this will continue. This is often short-term. This often results in certain outcomes that may or may not match the needs around us,” Rempel said.

“Unrestricted funds that we can use to put back into our programs are what we need to continue into the future.” »

Proceeds from the food truck also benefit Gospel Mission’s employment program.

The additional revenue stream allowed Gospel Mission to hire some of its own shelter residents to work on the food truck.

“It’s really great to see that these people who are living with us now have a chance to get a job and be able to just show up every day and start building a resume and developing a work habit that they can then hopefully adopt something else later,” Luypen said.

The concept has been so successful that the organization is already considering additional construction projects once Water Street By The Park is complete.

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