The Municipality of Bluewater will be receiving a funding request from the Bayfield Area Food Bank at Tuesday's council meeting.
Council agreed to sell the building that housed the food bank to make way for a new medical practice. One of the requests from various community groups was that those proceeds be put towards helping the food bank find a new home.
Council held a special meeting last week to approve the sale, but never discussed what funds from the sale would be earmarked for.
Catherine Tillman, a food bank board member, says in the past, Bluewater has put proceeds from land sales in Hensall and Dashwood back into those communities.
"Most recently, they sold the old community centre in Zurich and held all of the assets to build a new community centre in Zurich," she said. "But in this case, where they are taking all of the proceeds out, without designating any stay in Bayfield, we are putting our hand up and saying, 'Why not, you set the precedent?'"
The food bank needs to be out of its current location by April 4. They hope to have a new home lined up by mid-March at the absolute latest.
The funding request to council would include a grant for the temporary location that could house the bank for at least six months and a permanent location down the line.
Tillman says it's an issue council can't drag its feet on.
"We've tried to impress on the Municipality that if there is not a solution for food insecurity, then in the need to put food on the table, the next stop will be homelessness," she said. "I know the Municipality doesn't want to be in the food bank business... they also don't want to be in the shelter business, we're not asking them to be. We're here to do it, just give us the means."
Though the club is getting assistance from Councillor Bill Whetstone and Bluewater municipal staff in the search for a new space, its been unable to find anything suitable to serve its over 100 clients.
Tillman says a new space needs to be accessible and large enough to accommodate the refrigeration units and shelving needed to keep the shopping model its adopted since moving to the Lions Club going.
A storefront, would not be suitable she says.
"We provide a place that is open, welcoming and discreet," she said. "We know that if we're on Main Street, we'll lose half our people, they won't come."
Local churches have also been eliminated as a possibility, as have changerooms at the local arena over the summer.
Anyone with suggestions on a temporary or permanent space is asked to reach out to the Bayfield Area Food Bank.