Hockey cards and the food bank: Leduc business raising money to help feed others

Donations for the Leduc Food Bank on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (Evan Kenny/CTV News Edmonton)

Food and hockey go hand-in-hand – some wings and a pint while you watch the game – but what about food donations and hockey cards?

That's the combination a Leduc hobby shop is offering again this year in support of the town's food bank.

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In 2021, Lucas Crisby, the owner of The Hobby Spot, came up with the idea to offer up a pack of hockey cards in exchange for a food bank donation.

"It started out just to kind of get our name out there and do something for the community," Crisby said. "We just started this program small and it just snowballed every year since then.

"It's extremely motivating and makes you super proud to be a part of it."

That first year, the store collected around $6,000 cash and around 750 food items.

Last year, they raised more than $22,000 and more than 10,000 food items.

"I've had friends that have had to go to the food bank over the years … not always the easiest thing to do," Crisby said.

"The world's gotten a lot tougher in 2023 and 2024 and we're just thankful and blessed to be in a position to be able to contribute and to do our small part."

This year, Crisby set the goal post at $50,000 and 15,000 food items.

On Thursday morning, he was confident those goals would be reached.

"We're somewhere between 7,000 and 8,000 items physically here in-house, but we have around 4,000 or 5,000 more coming from the kids," Crisby said.

Five kids sports teams are also helping with the drive, going door-to-door to gather donations in Leduc, Edmonton, Beaumont and Devon.

The teams are competing to see who can collect the most donations, but each will come away with a prize.

"Getting the younger generation involved is extremely important," said Gert Reynar, the food bank's executive director.

"To be able to bring those younger generations into a campaign like this and show them the difference they make in the community, I think it's huge."

In 2023, The Hobby Spot was the single largest contributor to the Leduc Food Bank thanks to this campaign.

The food bank is counting on donors like The Hobby Spot due to increased demand.

"The economy is really, really difficult right now for our clients, we have so many people needing to use the food bank," Reynar said.

"I've been here 20 years, I have never seen this amount of need for our services."

The Leduc Food Bank serves between 275 and 300 people a month, which for them is "quite a lot."

The organization's food hamper program alone sends out between 40,000 to 50,000 pounds of food a month. It also works with schools and runs several other programs.

"Every Food Bank is struggling with the same thing, which is how long can we sustain this constant usage? Because we're getting from two to 10 new clients a day, every day." Reynar said.

"I always find it challenging to ask too much from the community because those families who used to be able to give to us are now needing to use us."

People are often embarrassed to need to come and use the food bank, according to Reynor.

"We try and make it as painless as possible or as comfortable and then they realize that stigma is not what people think it is," she said.

"I can tell you there are a lot of your neighbours, there are a lot of your relatives, there's a lot of your friends who are using food banks right now that you had no idea."

The donation drive runs until Dec. 14 when the Leduc Food Bank and Hobby Spot will have a finale event at the store.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Evan Kenny