Feeding the hungry in 2017

The Chestermere Regional Food Bank saw a slight decrease in the need for their services to end the year last year.
“We’ve seen a decrease in clients,” said Executive Director Mardi Oel, “It’s a good indication.”
The need in the city dropped over the final six months of 2017 than in was in 2016.
Where there has been an overall drop, Oel said that they have seen an increase in the number of seniors and number of single parent families using the food bank.
As always, Chestermerians have continued to generously support the Food Bank.
While Donations and community support of the food bank has been good, they continued to follow the same pattern of seasonal ebbs and flows last year.
“June, July, August, September we struggle to keep up,” said Oel, “and then come October, November donations are phenomenal.”
An example of that community support that stands out to Oel was the donation from Abstract Dance Academy’s donation.
Dancer’s from the academy participated in the Dance for dreams competition, which supports charities, and won $2000 for the food bank.
“It just sort of came out of the blue,” she said, “and isn’t it nice they thought of us.”
As 2018 gets off the ground, Oel is hopeful that it will be another year of strong community support and that the leveling off of the need in the community continues.
Along with keeping the food bank running a supporting those in need, Oel would like to see the programs offered by the food bank expand in 2018.
Some ideas she is considering are hot lunch programs in schools or a community kitchen program in the city.
“There’s so many programs that would be nice to be able to do,” she said.