With over 324 hampers given out so far this year, the Chestermere Food Bank will surpass the number of hampers given out from last year.
“It’s a little bit busier than last year, which is unfortunate,” said Chestermere Food Bank Executive Director Mardi Oel.
Throughout the year, there have been 150 single female households use the Chestermere Food Bank, Oel said.
She added, the increased number of hampers given out is due to the economy.
“It’s getting hard for people to make ends meet, we have a lot of working clients, and for these single moms it’s tough,” Oel said.
“All these people that have lost their jobs especially in the oil patch, when you’ve gone from $120,000 to $50,000 a year, it’s hard.
“You think you have the solution, but you don’t, it’s not that simple, trying to keep up with the mortgage payments and everything, it’s just getting so expensive.
“The food bank is the last resort for a lot of people, they don’t want to come here, but it’s a choice between keeping your lights on or eating.” Oel said.
With the Chestermere Food Bank having 994 clients to date, it quickly became a struggle keeping food on the shelves during the summer months and the beginning of fall.
“Right now, we have all this food because it’s Christmas, and there’s a lot of donations, but come the summer there was a point there where our shelves were pretty bare,” Oel said.
“We normally don’t shop for non-perishables, we usually save that money for milk, this year we were starting to shop for the beans,” she said.
This year, Pratts Food Service has donated Christmas hampers to the Chestermere Food Bank.
“For what they’re giving it would cost us over $10,000,” Oel said.
She added, “Pratts has gone crazy. They’re giving turkey, ham, meatballs, bacon, perogies, and sour cream.
“Our normal thing is yogurt, eggs, milk, lunch meat, and fresh produce.”
Right now, the shelves are packed at the Chestermere Food Bank with what is normally given out, Oel said.
“What we don’t have is canned dog food, spices, canned tuna, canned meat, cash for fresh produce, and condiments,” Oel added, excluding ketchup.
“We would like to offer more lettuce, and fruits, but that’s very tricky because you don’t want to buy too much, and it goes bad. We can never predict how many clients we’re going to have,” Oel said.
She added, the Chestermere Food Bank always needs food for children’s lunches, and snacks, including ready-made soup, lunch meat, and single serving packages of oatmeal.
“When we get an abundance of it, we give it to the schools,” Oel said.
It’s not just the donations that lets the food bank serve those who need it in Chestermere.
Seventy volunteers have donated 5500 hours in 2018 doing everything from collecting food from donation sites and bringing extra packages of food to schools.
“Without the volunteers we couldn’t do this, it just wouldn’t happen,” Oel said.
“Starting in November, we get all kinds of people wanting to volunteer, which is fantastic, she added, the community support the Chestermere Food Bank receives is great.
Residents can donate to the Chestermere Food Bank in a variety of ways, Oel added, cash donations can be brought directly to the food bank, or food donations can be done at Safeway, No Frills, City Hall, or the Rec Centre.
For more information on the Chestermere Food Bank or to get involved please visit the website at http://chestermerefoodbank.ca.
