The shelves at St. Albert’s food bank are nearly full this week after thousands of residents piled on the produce as part of the bank’s annual fall donation drive.
Hundreds of St. Albert volunteers converged on the St. Albert Food Bank and Community Village last Sept. 21 to drop off, sort and store some 25,000 brown paper bags full of food donated by city residents. The drop-off was the cumulation of the food bank’s annual fall food drive.
This year’s donation drive was an amazing success that basically filled the food bank’s warehouse, said food bank executive director Suzan Krecsy. Volunteers were still calculating the amount received as of Sept. 24, but she estimated this year’s drive brought in roughly the same amount of food as the one last year – more than 50,000 pounds, the Food Bank told volunteers.
“To me, that’s a win,” she said, given the jump in grocery prices and food bank demand since then.
Krecsy said last weekend’s donations will probably last the food bank until December, where they anticipate handing out about a thousand hampers of food. She thanked St. Albert residents for their support.
Charity challenge
The philanthropic group T8N 100 Men hopes to keep those donations coming through a community challenge. The group has called on St. Albert to donate $40,000 to the food bank by Oct. 15 — that’s $20,000 from the community and $20,000 in matching dollars from the group.
Group spokesperson John Liston said the group decided to launch this challenge after hearing about high demand and high food prices at the food bank. The group held similar challenges in 2022 and 2020, with the latter raising some $140,000.
“The community seems to really like the idea of doubling their contribution to the food bank,” Liston said, and he hopes St. Albert residents will once again step up to the plate.
“We’ll find a way to fund $20,000 between us, and don’t be surprised if we find more.”
The campaign had raised nearly $19,000 as of Sept. 24.
Donations to the T8N 100 Men campaign can be made at www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/103768.
