It’s all about number crunching for Suzan Krecsy, the executive director of the St. Albert Food Bank.
Every day she wonders how many families need the services of her agency. Every day she wonders how much food is on the shelves to give to those who can’t afford to buy their own: young mothers struggling to make ends meet; those who have lost their jobs and don’t have a steady paycheque; even those whose wallets just can’t keep up with the cost of living.
St. Albert is not immune to the plagues of destitution and impoverishment. So many people exist as members of the ‘working poor.’ They’re your neighbours, your friends and your relatives, and they keep growing in numbers.
That’s why last month’s annual food drive was such an important event. Krecsy said that demand rises during the last three months of the year. Without the combined effort of so many volunteers and donors working in unison on that one day, the food bank wouldn’t have enough to go around.
Despite so much weight being put on the results of the drive held on Saturday, Sept. 17, Krecsy always maintained her confidence that the people of the community would pull through.
She was right.
“It went very well,” she began before tempering the sound of success with a quick reality check. “Of course, we’re down this year. Considering what donors have been asked to do over this past year, St. Albert just really stepped up.”
‘Down’ means that the volume of incoming food is lower than it usually is. The problem compounds itself when you take into account the growing number of clients. Last year at this time, the agency had served 132 families. This September that number went up to 141 families. That translates into 426 individuals in just a single month.
The total number served in all of 2010 was 6,060. Unfortunately, Krecsy fully expects to reach or beat that mark by the end of December.
“I foresee a little bit of an increase.”
“Numbers are still staying up every month. We’re helping more families every month. A lot of the increase is due to new families coming on board. They’re struggling … a lot of them have jobs. They’re just underemployed.”
As it stands now, the event amassed 19,000 kg (42,000 pounds) — her goal was to bring in 22,700 kg (50,000 lb.). That’s approximately as much food as she needs to hand out in two months.
“I really like to have six months’ worth,” she added.
Her ideal amount of stock on the shelves: more than 68,000 kg.
“A lot of times we’ll get down to about four months’ worth of food and that’s still okay. Anything below that and I start getting concerned.”
There are school groups that have collected non-perishable food to donate in advance of Thanksgiving. She expects these gifts will piggyback onto the results of the food drive and land right on that goal line.
Of course, the food will be going straight out again as Thanksgiving hampers – an effort accomplished in partnership with the Salvation Army – are being handed out on Friday.
Krecsy also commented that she was very impressed and pleased with how donors are taking into account not just the quantity of the food that they give but also the quality of it.
“People in St. Albert are becoming more and more conscious about that. The stuff that they give us is really high quality.”
She thanked everyone involved for all of their support.
“This is a pretty special city.”
