Staff at St. Albert’s food bank are just a few weeks away from their biggest day of 2024.
On Sept. 21, the organization, which provides regular and emergency food, infant supplies, home furnishings, prepared meals, training and referrals to other social services, will hold its annual food drive.
It comes at a time where demand for the services provided by the St. Albert Food Bank and Community Village and other agencies is increasing year-over-year.
Annual, even monthly, increases in food insecurity are nothing new in this city, but the steep rise in demand has alarmed executive director Suzan Krecsy, who joined the organization in 2007.
“Food bankers were thinking by five years after Covid-19, the rates would start to go down, but no one could have predicted the impact of the affordability crisis,” Krecsy said. “Right now, there is a significant shortage of affordable housing in St. Albert.”
She said Friday the 659 families representing 1,900 individuals who received hampers in July of this year represent an “incredible” 37 per cent increase over the 480 families the food bank served in July 2023.
“Of that 659, 80 per cent were spending more than 50 per cent of their income on rent,” Kercsy said. “That number alone is quite unsettling because they’re one calamity away from being homeless.
“Four or five years ago, if someone told us they were paying $1,500 a month, we would say, ‘that’s awful, let us help you find something else.’ Now, we would say ‘stay there.’ Who can afford a $500 or $600 increase on a fixed income, like AISH, or CPP? No one.”
Vivian Collacutt, a community liaison social worker at the Community Village, said they saw 99 clients in July, 45 of them underhoused. She added that many of those individuals represent families, meaning they supported closer to 90 individuals experiencing homelessness last month.
She said those figures are “jumping,” and they are seeing clients coming from Edmonton, where hotels and motels typically used by social agencies to house vulnerable people are this year filled with, among others, wildfire evacuees.
Come and get it
Krecsy is clear that while anticipation of the Sept. 21 drive is high at the food bank, the organization isn't running short. Anyone in St. Albert facing acute food insecurity can contact the SAFB and will receive support.
“We’re exceptionally fortunate to have really thoughtful people who keep our families top-of-mind,” she said. “But our donors have been affected as well. They may not be able to give as much, but boy, do they still try.”
That said, volunteers for the Sept. 21 drive are in demand, too. People willing and able to help drop off 25,000 bags at homes across the city can contact Doug Webster, operations supervisor, at [email protected] or by phoning 780-459-0599 (extension 7).
Once filled by donors, those bags will be collected by volunteers with the Red Willow Church as they have been for the last four decades.
