Food bank puts out call for more heritage festival volunteers

Edmonton’s Food Bank is in need of more volunteers — 32 on Sunday alone — for its largest annual food drive, the Servus Heritage Festival.

The festival celebrating cultural diversity with 70 pavilions runs Aug. 5 to 7 in Hawrelak Park.

More volunteers are needed, particularly for shifts Sunday and Monday evening, Doug Hunter, resource development assistant for the food bank, said Friday.

They are looking for 32 volunteers for Sunday and 14 for Monday, both crucial shifts, Hunter said, to engage with patrons as they leave the festival — potentially with unused food tickets that can go toward the drive.

For every unused food ticket, Hunter said the festival gives 75 cents to the food bank, which is equivalent to two meals. The drive received $26,700 in unused food tickets alone from last year’s festival.

The drive in 2016 raised 42,336 kilograms of food and $52,889.50 in monetary donations to help the food bank get through the fall months.

Those 2016 donations were down from years prior, largely because of weather challenges affecting the festival, and Hunter said the main goal this year is to beat those numbers.

“We’d love to have over 50,000 kilograms of food,” he said.

Every month, donations to the bank go toward food hampers for about 20,000 people. It also distributes more than 500,000 meals and snacks each month through more than 230 agencies, churches and food depots.

About 40 per cent of the clients served by the food bank are children under the age of 18.

To sign up for a volunteer shift, call 780-425-2133 or email giving@edmontonsfoodbank.com.