Edmonton Food Bank worried about 2022, trying to ready year-end goal

EDMONTON -

The Edmonton Food Bank is in the middle of its most important time of the year for donations and the organization is worried about the outlook for 2022.

A drive-thru event hosted by the Alberta Motor Vehicle Association had people come through with food and cash donations for the food bank Sunday.

“I think everybody should have a great meal at Christmas time and this year has been difficult for most people so I think every bit helps,” said Wayne Dicks, a donor.

The end of the calendar year is an important time for the Edmonton Food Bank.

“The last 45 days of the calendar year is when about almost half of our operating budget comes in and a huge chunk of food that flows into the following year,” said Tamisan Bencz-Knight, a food bank spokesperson.

“As an organization we look far out, two, three, six months out to see what we have in our inventory and what we have to purchase and make those arrangements.”

Their goal is to collect 200,000 kg of food and $2-million in cash donations.

“We operate all year round so funds and food that come in help us, right now, bridge into the festive season but it sets the tone of services in 2022,” said Bencz-Knight.

“When you look around the warehouse right now, we do have a lot of surplus… a lot of product coming in which is good because of the challenges that we’re going to be looking at for 2022.”

The food bank currently serves 25,000 people each month, sometimes it can be as high as 28,000 monthly, and 40 per cent of their clients are children, according to Bencz-Knight.

“When you talk about inflation, the job market, everybody still Covid hesitant, there’s so many dynamics at play right now that it’s more complicated than it used to be,” she added.

“Will it affect our donors? Will it affect our clients more? Will it affect people that are actually making it but now have to turn to the food bank because of those increase in prices?”

The food bank is also dealing with delays getting the items they need and are paying more for them.

Currently, they have collected half of their food goal and about a third of the monetary goal.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson