The best way to offer your help and support to the evacuees and others affected by the Fort McMurray fire is to send cash to the Canadian Red Cross.
That’s the message being reinforced by Stephanie Rigby, executive director of the Alberta Food Banks Network.
“Definitely food is an issue but money helps tremendously,” she stated.
She announced that the provincial collective of 66 food banks is the main repository of emergency food assistance to the thousands of evacuees fleeing the area. While she understands the desire to help – and that help is certainly appreciated – she urges people to make the best use of their financial and other support.
“What we do want to do is make sure that we don’t start stockpiling food that we don’t know where it’s going to go or who’s going to use it. We want to move the right food at the right time to the right place. That’s how you have impact and can really make a difference.”
She mentioned that any evacuee in this area should contact the St. Albert Food Bank at 780-459-0599 to access food assistance. Anyone who has a service such as a large truck or a larger scale donation should contact the Alberta Food Banks directly at 780-459-4598 or by visiting its website at www.albertafoodbanks.org.
In the meantime, direct food relief efforts are pointing north to assist the food bank agencies in the Lac La Biche and Athabasca areas as they work to provide resources to their communities and the thousands of people fleeing the fire who have since landed in those communities.
Arianna Johnson, the Wood Buffalo Food Bank’s executive director (and also the volunteer board chair of Alberta Food Banks) herself relocated with her family to Lac la Biche and two other food bank staff members “along with seven or eight thousand other folks,” Rigby said.
“We have asked Alberta Food Banks to manage donation offerings as we are unable to process items that are not donated online through our website. Rest assured all donations allocated to our region will come to our region, and with the assistance of our provincial partner it will happen smoothly and ease the stress for my staff at the trying time,” Johnson said through a prepared press release on the Alberta Food Banks’ website.
She is already planning on how to rebuild her community and the families that her food bank supports.
“Fort McMurray is a resilient community. We will come home as soon as we are allowed. We will rebuild not just the homes but also the community as a whole. The food bank plays an integral role in the community on a day-to-day-basis; however, we also play an important role in the Emergency Social Services Committee of the region’s Emergency Management System.”
