Food needs reach highest levels in years

Alberta’s economic slump is putting the squeeze on High Country residents, with more relying on the food bank to fill their bellies than in recent years.

Oilfields Food Bank president Glenn Chambers said volunteers gave out 54 food hampers to families and individuals across the region in November – making it the highest month for hamper distribution in three years.

“Single adults is where I’ve seen the increase,” said Chambers. “They have to make a choice, do I pay for a place to live and if I do then I don’t have money for food. That seems to be an ongoing struggle. We don’t want these people to starve.”

Chambers said the food bank distributed 346 hampers in 2016 as of Dec. 8, which supplied food to 623 adults and 330 children. Sixty-two of those hampers went to first-time users – doubling the number from 2015, he said.

The increase, of about 100 food hampers over 2015, first became noticeable last spring when Chambers started having requests from people struggling with rent increases.

“One lady renting a one bedroom apartment in Black Diamond was paying $1,000 a month,” he said. “A lot of single people are moving back with their parents because they have no alternative. They have no way of getting employment.”

Chambers said he’s worried the trend will continue.

“I’m suspecting January through to February, March traditionally is a period where people, if they don’t have seasonal employment by then they’re not going to get it,” he said. “Historically that is the other high peak. If the economy doesn’t change and there is not more jobs, we are going to see a significant change in January to March.”

Volunteers were taken by surprise when the firefighters’ food drive on Nov. 7 and 8 in Black Diamond, Longview and Turner Valley brought in 700 more kilograms of food than the previous year, said Chamber.

The drive collected 5,788kg of food and $3,700 in cash donations, he said.

“I was really surprised,” he said.

“I never thought it would be that much higher because of the economic situation.”

The public’s generosity is adequately preparing the food bank for its upcoming Christmas hampers. Volunteers typically distribute about 100 Christmas hampers each year.

Volunteers have already received 70 self-referrals for the hampers, which will be delivered on Dec. 16, Chambers said.

As for food, he expects it will continue to pile up the next couple of weeks.

“We are getting food every day now – that’s typical at Christmas time,” he said. “The food bank is in good shape. We have lots of food.

“We are able to basically serve our clients in terms of purchasing whatever food we don’t have in the food bank.”

Chambers said the firefighters’ food drive typically supplies the food bank with enough non-perishable food items to last 12 months.

This year the food began to run out in 10 months, he said.

“We ended up having to buy things because we didn’t have the inventory,” he said. “The food drive helped build that up.”

Also helping to maintain the supply is support from locals schools, businesses and community groups that diligently collect food for the non-profit organization, said Chambers.

“I usually get one or maybe two phone calls in a week with people saying, ‘We’re considering doing a mini food drive, what would be the best time to do that?’” he said. “After Christmas would be best because we are so busy putting together Christmas hampers we don’t have unlimited manpower. We have a really good volunteer resource base here that helps us throughout the year.”

Chambers said the overwhelming support they are receiving now may not last.

With little help from the government he’s not sure what the future holds.

“The only funding we get from the government is, because we’re a charitable organization, 50 per cent of our GST is refunded to us,” he said. “That’s anything we have to buy to support the food bank operations that has GST. That might amount to $500 a year.”