Edmontonians have been coming to the rescue as food banks around the province struggle to keep their shelves stocked.

A record 130,000 pounds of food was donated during the Edmonton Eskimo’s Tackle Hunger event during Friday’s game against the Roughriders.

That collection surpasses the event’s previous record of 114,000 pounds, according to the organization’s website.

“I think people are quite surprised when they see who, unfortunately, needs the services of Food Bank because unfortunately can have a family break up, anyone can have poor health and are unable to work or anyone can lose a job,”  executive director of Edmonton Food Bank Marjorie Bencz said.

Residents will also be asked to help out the Food Bank by donating items during the Servus Heritage Festival over the August long weekend.

“We have been under a lot of pressure as an organization with increased numbers of people turning to our organization for services,” Bencz explained.

Along with the food hamper program the Food Bank also supplies meals and snacks to other organizations like The Mustard Seed and Hope Mission, she said.

“We are providing food to the equivalent of over 410,000 meals and snacks each month.

“Over the course of the year we are distributing about 3.4 million kilograms of food.”

She said they hoped to collect about 50,000 kilograms of food at the Heritage Festival this year.

According to the festival’s President’s Report, in 2013 they collected 60,041 kilograms of food, $60,000 cash and $60,054 in unused food tickets.

The need has been at the forefront of many resident’s minds.

“I think the need went up by about 20,000 people since last year – easily,” Stan Neufeld said.

“They’ve been having a tough time lately keeping their stores filled up enough to use them.”

“I know there are people around that they are in need and there is talk of a recession so I think it is even more important now that people donate to things like the Food Bank,” Dennis Sheehan said.

According to the Alberta Food Banks the need has been higher across the province this year.

The website indicates that in the City of St. Albert 19-27 new families have needed their services each month.

While the Wood Buffalo Food Bank Association has recorded a 57 per cent increase in usage over last year.

The organization statistics also show that the Food Bank in Viking normally hands out 47 hampers a year but has already handed out 50.

According to the Food Bank about 850,000 Canadians use the Fook Bank every month. In Alberta, 43 per cent are children.

There are about 115 food banks across the province.

With files from Frazer Snowdon