The Oilfields Food Bank continues to put food on the table for families in need through the winter.
Karen Milne, a food bank board member, said it’s members of the community that have helped stock the shelves more than ever.
The food bank, based out of the United Church in Turner Valley, handed out 86 Christmas hampers in December. These fed 160 adults and 98 children.
This was in addition to 42 regular hampers to feed 72 adults and 39 children, making a total of 369 mouths fed in December, Milne said.
She added while the usage held even with last year’s numbers, it has doubled since 2017.
“We all know the Alberta economy is not in a great place right now,” Milne said. “Additionally, there's COVID on top of that too, so we're not expecting to see a downturn in our number of users.
“Here we're feeding more people, because we're having more families with kids since the COVID pandemic hit and people are out of work trying to stretch their funds as far as they can."
Milne said the organization has seen a large increase in individuals making contributions. As corporations tighten their purse strings, individual donors have opened their wallets and their shopping carts.
“We have less corporate support in 2020, but we have more individual support, we’ve had more first time donors than we’ve had in a long time,” Milne said.
Alberta’s farmers have stepped up to help as well, donating gifts of ground beef, and even lamb.
“As long as the meat is butchered at an accredited place, like Red Deer Lake Meats, inspected and stamped we can accept it," she said.
“Lots of people have been stepping up to make sure that we're taken care of. We couldn't be more thankful, honestly.”
Milne also credits their small force of volunteers, who take joy in giving back to the community.
“We just have an awesome group of people that help us every week,” she said.
“Since COVID has hit, we might all be masked, but you can tell when someone's smiling.
“Most of our volunteers are still smiling.”
Those who wish to contact the Oilfields Food Bank can go to www.oilfieldsfoodbank.com or call 403-612-1291 on Monday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
