As part of its modified Empty Bowls Festival, the Airdrie Food Bank (AFB) has partnered with local grocery stores in an effort to collect donations for Thanksgiving and the rest of the year.
On Sept. 26, AFB volunteers will be stationed at local Safeway, No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore, Sobeys and Save-On-Foods locations between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to collect donations for its Thanksgiving food drive. Depending on the comfort level of each grocery stores’ staff, AFB volunteers may be either inside or outside, according to Executive Director Lori McRitchie.
“We know it’s not going to be as large a food drive as it might be if it was city-wide or door-to-door, but for us, we consider it to be safe and a great way to do this,” McRitchie said.
Normally, McRitchie said, AFB would partner with the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for a city-wide food drive in Airdrie. This year, that food drive was nixed over concerns for volunteer safety because of COVID-19.
“That leaves us in a place where our stockpile of food or the food that we have available to give out in hampers between now and Christmas is affected,” she said.
According to McRitchie, AFB hopes to collect food items normally used during a traditional Thanksgiving meal, as well as some of its most-needed items. Volunteers will distribute a shopping list of items as people enter the stores, and hopes “they’ll be comfortable buying one for themselves and one for someone else.”
“That’s going to be things like cranberries and stuffing mix, canned veggies,” McRitchie said. “We’ll be able to collect some perishables on site too and we’ll pick them up as the day goes on. Some of the other things we’re really low on that we’re purchasing in large amounts are things like pancake mix and syrup, canned soup – we’ve never been low on canned soup before.”
Other items in need, according to McRitchie, include flour, oats, rice, sugar and kids’ snacks.
Once purchased, donations can be dropped off in a bin as the shopper exits the store, she said, eliminating the need for volunteers to actually touch the food items. Donations will then sit for a quarantine period before being distributed.
Volunteers will also collect financial donations, which AFB will put towards purchasing the items it needs.
“This will alleviate us having to purchase a few of those items that are going out in our Thanksgiving hampers,” McRitchie said.
Especially this year, she added, AFB wants to help carve out a moment of joy and celebration for families that are struggling by providing them all the elements they’ll need for a Thanksgiving dinner.
“I think it’s really important to find light where you can, and to find hope,” McRitchie said. “We do have things to be thankful for.”
A donation target has not been set for the drive, she added, and any food or funds received are greatly appreciated.
“We don’t have a goal," she said. "We know many in our community are struggling as well…. One of the things we are really trying to be mindful of is not putting a burden on people who are struggling.”
According to McRitchie, the community’s need for the food bank is “higher than ever.”
“We are purchasing way more food than we ever have before,” she said. “We’re making sure those most-needed [items] are on hand at all times so that people are getting the things they need.”
During the pandemic, McRitchie said AFB initially saw a large volume of users, which subsided as relief programs like the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and tax deferrals came into effect. Now that CERB and other relief programs are coming to an end, she said demand for food bank hampers has increased steadily since August.
“We are at our maximum daily hampers right now,” she said.
As many in Airdrie deal with a host of concerns and uncertainty, McRitchie said AFB wants to take one – the question of where food will come from – off their plates.
“Support is vital at this time,” she said. “We’re looking at our numbers, and we’re concerned for our community and for those that are struggling. We want to make sure we have what it takes to go the long run that’s going to be between now and Christmas.”
Ben Sherick, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @BenSherick
