by Scott Hayes
The Alberta Food Bank Network is freshening up its attempts to get people to donate fresh food with the first ‘real food’ drive set to start in the middle of next month.
During a news conference Thursday, Stephanie Rigby, the St. Albert-based executive director of the organization, explained that this marks a major departure from the traditional food drive by focusing on encouraging the donation of fresh produce and more nutritious frozen foods over canned and packaged items that most people normally consider when they make their donations.
“We are committed to purposefully seek out avenues to help food banks meet the demand for more food, while reinforcing the message that food banks need more than canned and highly processed food to build a well-balanced and healthy food hamper,” she said.
Food banks themselves need to change their messages to the communities that they serve. Most people know that any food drive comes with the stipulation of focusing on ‘non-perishable foods’ i.e. food products contained in cans or boxes. Changing that request to ‘fresh fruits and vegetables’ signifies a quantum shift in how food banks plead their cases to the public.
The ‘Real Food’ Drive in Canada will feature an online format to gear up those donations of fresh, nutritious food. It will be conducted as a collaboration with U.S.-based Amp Your Good, a company whose so-called ‘crowd-feeding’ system offers a way for people to easily donate healthy food.
“We're thrilled to be partnering with Alberta Food Banks and to be able to introduce crowd-feeding to Canada. Our job is to make it easy for people to donate the food really needed by those struggling with hunger,” said Patrick O’Neill, CEO of the American organization.
Donors can visit Amp Your Good’s website during the campaign and select from a list of healthy foods that they can pay for online. It will then organize the purchase and delivery of those orders straight to each food bank.
“Traditional food drives don’t necessarily allow the flexibility for donors to contribute fresh or perishable food and online food drives still leave the purchasing to small food banks, often at full retail pricing,” Rigby continued.
The program has already proven itself as a success in the U.S. and is making its Canadian début in this province.
“Alberta Food Banks hopes to demonstrate leadership in the national food bank sector by recognizing the value in this fresh approach and its focus on acquiring more nutritious food.”
The way that it will work in this province is that a dozen of the most needed and most nutritious and fresh food items have been selected. People can donate to the provincial campaign while 14 food banks, including St. Albert’s, will each host their own community-specific drive.
“Being a part of this new, innovative food drive is very exciting for us,” stated Suzan Krecsy, executive director of the St. Albert Food Bank. “It also could not come at a better time. The dramatic upsurge in client usage continues for us in St. Albert. This drive will allow our donors an easy alternative to the more traditional drive and will help to better inform our donors of our ability to accept fresh and frozen items.”
Last year, the economic decline impacted Alberta’s food banks in Alberta with a 23 per cent jump in usage across the board. Many communities have reported the demand for food continues to skyrocket by as much as 75 per cent and the problem continues to this day.
The Real Food Drive will provide critical food supplies during late spring and early summer when donations tend to slow down, even though the demand stays high. The month-long campaign runs May 16 to June 13 and has a goal of raising $250,000 worth of food across the province – roughly 45,000 kgs.
“We firmly believe this campaign will provide anyone the opportunity to play a role in tackling one of the most pressing issues we will face this year in Alberta,” Rigby ended.
People can connect to the food drive by visiting www.feedalberta.com.
