Penelakut Island food stores spoil after power outage during B.C. windstorm

Hundreds of people on B.C.’s Penelakut Island are staring down a winter without their essential food stores.

Last week’s windstorm is to blame, as it knocked out power to the island off Chemainus for about four days, said Kurt Irwin, a Penelakut Tribe councillor. 

“All of our freezers and everything were thawing from the moment that the storm hit,” Irwin said. “By the time the power came on, you know, everybody had lost everything in their fridges and freezers.”

The small island is home to roughly 300 Penelakut First Nation members, many of whom hunt and fish.

“We live off the land as First Nations people,” Irwin said. “They don’t have a grocery store that you can run down to and grab more meat.”

Irwin is coordinating food drives on Saturday, Dec. 7. People can drop off donations in front of the Country Grocer or Thrifty Foods on Salt Spring Island, which neighbours Penelakut. Irwin plans to deliver the food to affected families the next day.

“We have a lot of pride in harvesting our own food off our own lands and this is not easy to come forward and ask people for help,” he said.

People can also donate online through a GoFundMe page or the Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust.

“We’re going to buy a walk-in freezer and cooler with a generator, so when we have future events, we want to be self-sustainable,” Irwin said.

“Hopefully people will donate and we’ll make this bad situation into a good one.”