Annual blitz yields over 173,000 kilos donated to food bank
Thousands of Calgarians came out to Market Mall on Saturday, filling truck after truck with food donations to help the city’s less fortunate.
More than 173,000 kilograms of non-perishable food items — roughly 1/10th the weight of the Calgary Tower — were collected at the 14th annual City-Wide Food Drive in support of the Calgary Food Bank.
Dan Ouellette, development coordinator with the food bank, said the number of Calgarians using the service begins to climb in September as kids head back to school, and demand continues through the Christmas season and winter.
“There’s all these added costs in your life, and that’s when people find they are needing our assistance.
“But our goal is also to help them so they don’t get to that spot,” he said, adding the food bank works with partner agencies to help Calgarians with employment.
Ouellette said 184,000 people used the food bank’s services last year and he expects around the same number this year.
He said 2008 was a record year for the food bank, taking in more than 225,000 kilograms of donations before the economic downturn.
And even though Alberta’s economy is on the rebound, Ouellette said the food bank’s demand has remained the same year over year.
“What we’ve noticed is that when the recession started to hit, our demand started to increase. It wasn’t just in September, it was all around the year,” he said.
The food drive surpassed expectations, as Ouellette had hoped to collect around 158,000 kilograms of food.
Calgarians can make donations to the Calgary Food Bank by leaving bags of non-perishable food items at bins in any Calgary grocery store. You can also register to volunteer or make a financial donation by visiting www.calgaryfoodbank.com.