DEVELOPING
Food bank, now providing 35,000 hampers a month, hoping to restock at Heritage Festival
Empty shelves are seen at Edmonton's Food Bank in this Aug. 4, 2023, photo.
Edmonton's Food Bank needs Edmonton Heritage Festival to again be one of its largest hauls of the year as public need remains "staggeringly" high.
"The challenge has not been that people haven't been kind and generous," food bank executive director Marjorie Bencz told media on Friday, one day before the festival kickoff.
The food bank says demand increased 45 per cent between 2020 and 2022.
So far in 2023, the agency has provided hampers to about 35,000 people each month, a 26-per cent increase over one year.
According to the early data, that was true of July, too, a month that is typically slower because people receive GST refunds then.
More support is also being requested by the 300 soup kitchens, shelters, schools and other community organizations the food bank assists, Bencz said.
"The food has been going out faster than it's been coming in."
She attributed the trend mostly to inflation which still affects the agency's bulk buying – albeit to a lesser degree than the public's – as well as donors' ability to donate and clients' ability to pay bills.
Edmonton's Food Bank is asking Heritage Festival attendees to bring non-perishable food items to donate.
Anything your family eats at home, Bencz said: canned soups, packaged pasta, pasta sauce, canned meats, peanut butter, baby formula, rice.
The bank is aiming to collect several tonnes of donations during the three-day event at Edmonton Exhibition Lands and Borden Park.
"People tend to think of the work of the food bank and other agencies at Christmas and other festive times in the year. Unfortunately, we're trying to fill the need all year round. People are hungry and in need throughout our community all year," Bencz said.
Non-perishable food items can also be donated at grocery stores and fire stations.
Monetary donations can be made online.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Matt Marshall
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