The work of transporting food donations to the Chestermere Regional Food bank got a lot easier with the gift of a van Sept. 30.
Long time Chestermere resident and Rotary Club Member Glen Richardson and his wife Jeanette donated the van.
“We’re in a position that we can make this donation,” said Richardson.
“There’s some many people that donate their time generously and I can’t do that part of it so…Jeanette and I wanted to support the people who give so generously,” he said.
Richardson knows that the need has increased for the food bank in recent months and wanted to support the organization’s work.
“We know these days the food bank is always very important for those that run into hard times,” he said, “with the economy in Alberta the way it is I understand the food bank is a lot more pressed then they have been in the past.”
The idea for the donation came from a Rotary meeting. Oel jokingly suggested that Richardson should donate a van.
“You don’t ask somebody for a van, and you have it a week later,” she said.
Oel was shocked and excited when Richardson told he had the van and was bringing it over.
“It was a happy day for Mardi, she was almost in tears,” said Richardson.
The van is providing a boost to the food bank’s operations.
“It means we don’t have to use our own vehicles to haul things back and forth,” said an excited Mardi Oel the Food Bank’s Executive Director.
One volunteer in particular is very excited by the donation she said.
Chestermere’s food bank is allowed to shop at the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank for anything that they are in short supply of.
Volunteer Ken MacDonald drives into Calgary to get the supplies.
In the past he has had to make two trips, driving in to the city in his car, using the Interfaith’s van to bring the supplies back to Chestermere then driving back to get his car.
Now that he can use the Chestermere Food Bank van it will be a lot more efficient she said.
“I think that’s why he’s so excited,” said Oel.
The van will also be especially helpful for moving the food bank’s donation bins to and from businesses for food drives.
“I can’t fit a bin in my vehicle,” said Oel.
In the past volunteers have had to make two or three trips to bring all the donations back to the food bank.
