Receiving help from the local food bank prompted a family of six to give back this year. Alexandra Grunleitner, her husband and their four children immigrated from Germany in 2013 and relied on the Okotoks Food Bank to help get them through a tough year and a half while they struggled financially but weren’t able to receive government support. This year, they have chosen to sponsor two families through the food bank’s Adopt a Family program, donating $100 per family. “We were on the receiving end and if it would not have been for the food bank I would not have been able to feed my kids good, nutritious food,” said Grunleitner. “Sometimes I may not have been able to feed them at all. “I feel after you got so much support, as soon as you’re in a position where you can support others, you just have to do it. It’s the right thing to give back.” Rather than sending an online donation, the family took $100 cash to the food bank twice, so their children could physically give back to the organization that helped them, she said. Grunleitner said she knows the pressure, particularly at Christmas, when it’s difficult to put food on the table. “Turkeys are quite expensive, so we would not have had Christmas dinners without the food bank, twice,” she said. Knowing how difficult things are for people and that demand is not going down, Grunleitner said it felt right to support the agency that provided so much for her family. She also hopes it shows her children, ages six, nine, 11 and 12, a valuable lesson. “I really hope it teaches them that there is no shame in asking for help and accepting help when you need it, but as soon as you are in a position to help others you just have to give back,” said Grunleitner. “You have to help others.” The Okotoks Food Bank is one of 10 charities receiving help from Western Wheel Cares this year. Executive director Sheila Hughes said donations have been slower this year, so the financial help is a significant boost. “It’s been a bit more of a challenge this year than last, most definitely,” said Hughes. Despite having fewer items donated to the food back, she said the Christmas hamper program was successful and 207 hampers were distributed on Dec. 15. She said slow donations have been reported as a problem from a number of food banks in the province this year. “No matter what the news says, from what we see I do not see as rosy an economy as they tend to be predicting,” said Hughes. Meanwhile, she said usage is at about the same rate as in 2017 for people who receive regular hampers – in fact, it’s about 4.5 per cent down in 2018. But the Help Yourself Shelves are a different story, she said. The shelves, which are intended to hold people over between receiving regular hampers, have gone up in use by 15 to 18 per cent, she said. “It’s kind of balancing each other out,” said Hughes. “It ends up being the same as last year, pretty close.” The biggest concern going forward is how the economy will affect both the number of people accessing the food bank and the number of donations coming in through 2019, she said. Some of the ongoing needs at the food bank are personal care items like shampoo and conditioner, size 5 or 6 diapers and paper products like toilet paper and tissues. There is always a need for baking supplies, condiments, canned meals and juices that don’t need to be refrigerated, as well as pasta, sauce and jam, she said. Monetary donations are always welcome as well, to help facilitate the food bank’s milk program and to purchase items like fresh produce and meat to make hampers healthier for families, she said. “That’s one thing I’m worried about that’s going to go up significantly next year, because we really work hard on making sure our hampers are healthy, and having those prices go up is going to make us be a little more careful in our choices,” said Hughes.
