A New Home

SFBLC’s new building will be located at 425 Avenue P South in Saskatoon’s historic Pleasant Hill neighbourhood.

The site gives us room to expand emergency food services, strengthen food recovery, grow programs, and improve how people move through the building. It also creates outdoor space for food-growing activities, gardens, and hands-on programming connected to food skills, nutrition, sustainability, and community connection.

SFBLC has outgrown our current facility.

More households are turning to us for help as they navigate pressures connected to the cost of housing, food, utilities, transportation, and other necessities. SFBLC’s current building simply was not designed for the volume of food, people, volunteers, staff, and community activity now moving through it.

SFBLC explored renovating our current building, but the structural limitations of the facility make it difficult to expand or reconfigure the space in a way that would meet our long-term needs. The facility does not have enough room for the amount of food being received, stored, sorted, and distributed. It also limits our ability to grow programs, expand training opportunities, and create more space for community connection.

Renovation would have required significant investment while still leaving many of the same constraints in place. A new building allows us to design the right space from the beginning, with the capacity, layout, accessibility, food-handling areas, program spaces, and flexibility needed to meet current needs and prepare for future growth.

The new building will bring SFBLC’s emergency food, food recovery, learning, and community work together in a purpose-built facility.

Key features will include:

• A larger food bank program area with better space for intake, hamper preparation, and distribution

• Approximately double the warehouse and food storage capacity

• Improved receiving, sorting, refrigeration, and freezer spaces

• Learning kitchens, including a commercially licensed kitchen where participants can build food skills, prepare meals, recover usable food, and take part in employment pathway programs

• Classrooms and meeting rooms for programs, partner activities, training, and community use

• More functional volunteer and staff areas

• Improved accessibility throughout the building, including barrier-free access, accessible washrooms, clear circulation routes, and intuitive wayfinding

• Exterior gardens and outdoor space for food-growing activities, hands-on programming, and community connection

The new building will change more than the amount of space SFBLC has. It will change how people experience SFBLC when they come through the doors.

People will still be able to access emergency food, but the new building will make that experience more accessible and connected to other opportunities. Better space for intake, hamper preparation, and distribution will help reduce crowding, improve privacy, and make it easier for people to move through the building. For someone arriving during a stressful week, those details matter.

The new facility will also allow us to expand our programs. With learning kitchens, classrooms, meeting spaces, exterior gardens, and improved food program areas, people will have more opportunities to build food skills, learn practical tools, connect with others, and take part in programs that can help stretch household budgets, build confidence, and create pathways to employment.

Food insecurity is rarely only about food. People who turn to SFBLC may also be managing housing costs, transportation, childcare, employment, health, family responsibilities, or other pressures. A better building will not remove those challenges, but it will give SFBLC more room to respond in practical, human ways.

The new building is being designed so people, food, staff, volunteers, and programs can move through the space more clearly and efficiently.

Public-facing areas will be easier for visitors to access, while food receiving, sorting, storage, cold storage, and distribution areas will be organized to improve day-to-day operations. This will help staff and volunteers work more safely and effectively, and it will help people using SFBLC experience services that feel clearer, calmer, and better connected.

The building will also make it easier for different activities to happen at the same time. Emergency food services, food recovery, training, programming, partner activities, and community use will no longer have to compete for the same limited space in the same way.

The goal is a building that works better for everyone using it: people accessing services, program participants, volunteers, staff, partners, and donors.

Construction is underway.

Project milestones include:

• Ground-breaking event in October 2025

• Site preparation completed in 2025

• Foundation work beginning in 2026

• Building structure and major construction continuing through 2026 and 2027

• Substantial completion and occupancy currently projected for Fall 2027

As with any major construction project, timelines may shift as permits, trades, materials, weather, and site conditions are managed. SFBLC will continue to share updates as the project moves forward.

Yes. SFBLC will continue operating during construction.

The new building is being constructed at 425 Avenue P South while SFBLC continues to provide services from our current location at 202 Avenue C South. People will still be able to access emergency food and take part in SFBLC programs throughout the construction period.

As the project gets closer to completion, we will share more information about the move, any service changes, and what people can expect during the transition. The goal is to make the move as clear and well-planned as possible, so people who rely on SFBLC know where to go, when changes are happening, and how to continue accessing services.

This project is already underway, but donor support remains essential to completing the building and reducing the long-term financial pressure on SFBLC.

Gifts to the capital campaign will help fund the spaces, equipment, furnishings, gardens, accessibility features, and infrastructure needed to operate. Strong community support also helps ensure that more of SFBLC’s future resources can be directed toward programs and services rather than facility costs.

You can support the project by making a gift to SFBLC’s capital campaign or by contributing in-kind goods or services.

Financial contributions will help complete the new facility and equip it for daily operations. In-kind support may include equipment, furnishings, landscaping, technology or other resources that help reduce project costs and enhance the building.

Whether large or small, every contribution plays a role in helping SFBLC create a welcoming, accessible space that can serve the community for years to come.