St. Albert residents are reaching out to give others a hand this Christmas, with one local charity raising more than $100,000 for the food bank.
The T8N100Men group announced Dec. 6 that it had raised roughly $120,594 for the St. Albert Food Bank. The group is a non-profit organization which sees its members donate large amounts of money to various charitable causes.
Group co-organizer John Farlinger said the group launched a fundraiser for the Food Bank earlier this fall and challenged the St. Albert community to take part, vowing to match every dollar raised.
“Everyone knows the Food Bank is facing challenges right now,” he said, so the group decided to make it the focus of its fall fundraising efforts. A similar push back in April 2020 raised $140,000.
St. Albert residents chipped in $75,544 as of Dec. 6, far exceeding the $45,050 the T8N100Men members raised themselves, group co-organizer John Liston said.
“The community responded in incredible amounts,” he said.
“In extremely challenging times in our world, the generosity of those who have a little extra, it’s incredible.”
St. Albert Food Bank director Suzan Krecsy said extremely high food prices had pushed demand at the St. Albert Food Bank up by about 40 per cent compared to last year. Alberta has seen a 73 per cent increase in food bank use since 2019, she noted, citing data from Food Banks Canada — the biggest increase in the nation.
“We’re seeing a lot of our folks who were previously donors come in as clients now,” Krecsy said.
“Everybody is feeling the pinch. Everybody.”
Krecsy said this money would help the food bank buy more food for local families.
“St. Albert is exceptionally generous in taking care of our families,” she said, with schools, hockey teams, and many other groups all rallying donations for the food bank.
Krecsy said anyone who wished to support the food bank could leave donations in any of the many collection boxes in town or call 780-459-0599 to volunteer.
Other fundraisers
City residents were also gearing up to stuff buses this weekend for the Kinette Club of St. Albert’s annual Christmas Hamper Campaign, which sees about 300 area families get a hamper full of food and gifts to help them get through the holiday season.
Hamper campaign co-chair Julie DeMott said the group had seen a steep drop in monetary donations this year, with just $1,500 collected as of Dec. 5 compared to the usual $10,000. She suspected tight financial times were to blame.
At the same time, DeMott said demand for the hampers was way up. The Kinettes had received about 260 referrals for hampers as of Dec. 5, and still had 10 days left before the close of applications.
DeMott said the lion’s share of this year’s donations would come this Dec. 10 through the club’s annual Fill-a-Bus campaign. Volunteers will be at Canadian Tire, FreshCo, Independent Grocers, Superstore, Safeway, Save On Foods, Sobey’s, and Walmart in St. Albert from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. this Saturday to collect donations in hopes of stuffing nine St. Albert Transit buses full of food and toys.
“We’d really like to see a full bus,” DeMott said, adding that they usually manage to fill each bus at least halfway.
DeMott said the group was most interested in pasta, cereal, baby food, meals-in-a-can (such as Chunky soup), and gift cards for their hampers. Each hamper aimed to give a family two weeks of food plus a Christmas dinner. Hampers would go out on Dec. 17.
Visit www.stalbertkin.ca/christmas-hamper-campaign for more on the hamper campaign.
The Salvation Army St. Albert Corps was also ringing up support through its kettle campaign, which aimed to raise some $350,000 for community programs. Capt. Daniel Rowe said he had seen a surge in volunteers to man the 13 kettles in St. Albert this year, as well as a big jump in in-person donations compared to the last two years.
“We’re extremely pleased by the amount of giving,” he said, with some $128,000 gathered as of Dec. 6.
The kettle campaign wraps up on Dec. 24. Call 780-458-1937 for details.
