Jim Calamunce the executive director of the Langley Food Bank happened to be a tenant of local businessman Bobby Pawar in a building located at the old Caps Cycle location on Logan Avenue in Langley city.
For quite awhile the food bank has been serving more and more people and not only had the area outgrown from which they operated but were serving nearly 5000 people per month and growing at a rate of 4 percent a month. Food bank representatives such as Calamunce approached Pawar to buy their building so the Food Bank could expand and meet the needs of many of the less fortunate in our communities.
The problem arose when the food bank that works on donations only could not get their financing done as they were quite short on their proceeds. Simultaneously, the ownership group was beginning to receive higher offers from other interested groups due to the location of the building being just a couple hundred meters from the future Langley Sky train station. Shortly after this the owners of the buidling met and Pawar and his team got a tour from Jim and the Food Bank representatives of their current facility and the people they served. It was heartbreaking to see how many people would line up for basic food necessities and how this group was growing at such a fast rate.
Pawar contacted the food bank and their executive and with the help of the bank came up with a plan. The co-owners of the property met and Pawar and his team decided turn down better offers for the building, and donated $700,000 to the food bank as that is how much they were short.
The food bank was ecstatic and so were Pawar and his team. The realtor who represented the food bank also donated his commission back as well.
"We are very happy to give back and some of the owners were out of town or at work so I want to send a special thanks to them. Bobby Pawar, Dr Kulminder Bahi, Dr. Hanif Ukani, Ashraf Kassam, Nav Bhangu. Finally, we watched what these people do- they feed people, a basic right and principle of humanity. They volunteer they free time to do this without asking for any donations or charity. I’m proud of the food bank, my partners and all other parties involved in this transaction. I pray that this motivates others to do the same". says Bobby Pawar of Pawar Group of Companies.
