Already seeing an increase in need in the community at the beginning of the year, the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact it’s had has led to a further increase in the number of people in our community who are looking for help to put food on the table.

The pandemic forced the Airdrie Food Bank to cancel its usual events and fundraisers including the city-wide food drive due to concerns over the drop off of empty bags and the collection of food donations from people’s doorsteps and how and where to store the food for a quarantine period.

This past weekend, in hopes of making up for some of the lost donations, the food Bank held a food drive at several grocery stores across Airdrie. They managed to collect 4,119 pounds of food. While they appreciate the donations, the food won’t go very far.

“That will feed 24 families of four and if you drill it down, that’s not even a week’s worth of hampers for us,” said communications manager Christine Taylor.

By comparison, last year’s city-wide food drive brought in 34,022 pounds of food.

“I think it’s important that people understand that it sounds like a lot of food, but in terms of how quickly we’re giving hampers out, it’s not. It will help us for a little bit,” Taylor explained.

In the month of September, the Airdrie Food Bank handed out 259 food hampers to families in need. That is a 36 per cent increase from September of 2019.

On average, the Food Bank gives out eight food hampers per day and that is expected to continue going up.

“But, in terms of not having or being able to do any events and food drives and such, we’re very happy and pleased and thankful,” Taylor said.

The food drive also generated $3,000 in cash donations. Due to their purchasing power, the Food Bank is able to buy more food per dollar. The Food Bank also relies heavily on partnerships with local growers and grocers for staples like potatoes, carrots and bread.

 

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