The Greater Vancouver Food Bank officially moved into a new facility in Burnaby on Thursday, at a time when demand for its services continues to grow.

The new facility is a larger warehouse with increased refrigerator and freezer capacity, says CEO David Long.

"I actually sort of wish we didn't have to increase [space] but unfortunately demand is up," Long said.

The new facility has a cold storage capacity of 60,000 square feet, four times that of the old facility's 15,000 square feet.

Long said demand has increased by about 20 per cent over the past year. Every week, the food bank supports approximately 28,000 people.

He says the food banks supports all sorts of people, and that a quarter of the clientele are children.

"We have college students, we have senior citizens, we have parents with toddlers, you know single parents, we have a lot of working people who are just having such a tough time making ends meet," he said.

Fresher, high quality food

He said the new facility will give the food bank the chance to accept larger donations and focus on fresher, high quality products.

"A lot of people seem to have this vision of the food bank ... you know handing out some Kraft Dinner and that's really not what we're doing anymore," he said.

"We're trying to make sure we reduce the salt intake, reduce the sugar intake, and focus on protein and better quality of food."

The food bank is working directly with farmers in the Okanagan and the Fraser Valley, and is able to buy produce directly from the grower at cheaper, wholesale prices.

The food bank distributes around 38,555 kilograms (85,000 pounds) of food weekly.