Thrifty Foods store manager Jerry Jaggers made a special trip to Gabriola to present a cheque for $2,000 to People for a Healthy Community’s (PHC) Food Depot Co-ordinator Shirley Petersen on Feb. 15.

Jaggers said the cheque was PHC’s portion of $23,500 that was collected when the Nanaimo grocery chain sponsored a Food for Families initiative in December. Customers from two stores in Nanaimo donated towards all the food banks in Nanaimo, he said.

Jaggers said that through the promotion, which was sponsored throughout the whole Thrifty Foods chain, the stores “… put together bags (of groceries), or (people) had the choice of making a $10, $20, or $2 donation, and that money was collected and distributed out”. He said most of the money collected in Nanaimo was from the north end, but there was a lot from the Port Place store as well, and that was split up between PHC, the Salvation Army, and the Loaves and Fishes Food Bank.

Acknowledging the initiative received lots of support from Gabriola, Jaggers said the Port Place store collected $1,932 worth of donations towards the PHC food depot, and he put in an extra $68 himself to bring the total up to $2,000.

Jaggers noted that there are a number of programs through which Thrifty Foods shoppers can donate to PHC. He said the store has “Smile Cards” through which five per cent of whatever amount is “loaded” onto a card can be dedicated to PHC. He said customers then buy their groceries with the card. He said that PHC can apply to be a participant, and can give cards to everyone who shops at Thrifty Foods and then PHC “gets the money immediately”.

Jaggers said the store also has Club Thrifty Foods Points Cards through which shoppers are awarded points when they make purchases at Thrifty Foods. He said PHC supporters can link their points cards to PHC, so that PHC gets the points. PHC can then redeem the points and get the money off at the till, he said.

Asked if it was possible to load up a Smile Card, and use the points card at the same time Jaggers said: “Absolutely!”

In further discussion Jaggers was asked about the store’s new shopping carts which are set up to make the wheels stop rolling if they are taken off the lot. Jaggers said that there are still a few stainless steel carts that can be taken off the lot. Asked about a possible “green carts” option involving painting the carts green and allowing Gabriolans to use them to either go to the ferry parking lot across the street or even to Gabriola, Jaggers said if there was a rack on Gabriola, or in the ferry parking lot where people could park the carts, he would be open to the idea.