Building a Healthier Future: Quality Foods’ Impact on NRGH’s Critical Care

This is a series to celebrate the community and individual donors who are making the Critical Care Unit at NRGH possible.

At the heart of Vancouver Island’s communities, certain businesses did more than serve customers—they helped build a better future. One such business was Quality Foods, a homegrown success story that has supported Nanaimo Regional General Hospital (NRGH) for nearly 30 years. As the hospital took a transformative step forward with constructing the Critical Care Unit, Quality Foods once again stepped up to make a lasting impact.

A Longstanding Commitment to Healthcare
Quality Foods began as a small grocery store in Qualicum Beach in 1982 and grew into a well-known chain serving communities across Vancouver Island. Throughout its success, the company remained dedicated to giving back and contributing to local healthcare initiatives for decades.

Since 1995, Quality Foods’ generosity has supported numerous areas of NRGH, including Paediatrics, Maternity, Cardiac Care, and Surgery, as well as long-term care facilities such as Dufferin Place, Trillium Lodge, and Eagle Park Healthcare Facility.

When the time came to expand and improve critical care services at NRGH, Quality Foods made another meaningful contribution. Their gift helped fund the High Acuity Unit (HAU) Waiting Room, ensuring that patients’ families had a place of comfort while their loved ones received care. In recognition of this generosity, the space was named in honour of the company’s founding partners, Ken Schley and John Briuolo.