The Airdrie Food Bank is calling for more help and more donations after experiencing one of the busiest weeks of its existence leading into the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
“What we are seeing here is demand we have never seen before, and, frankly, it makes us very worried about what is going to happen as we move closer to Christmas,” said Lori McRitchie, executive director of the Airdrie Food Bank, in a recent interview. “(Oct. 6) was the busiest day in our history for feeding people. We had our ‘Produce Pop-Up’ and our ‘Pantry Program’ open, and we did hampers. We provided food support to 200 families (on that day) alone.”
Amid sky-high inflation, McRitchie said she and her staff have been struggling to keep up with the “unprecedented” demand, not only last week, but in recent months.
“There are many in our community that have been impacted by recent economic things that are going on: inflation, no jobs, and increasing costs,” she said. “What we have seen starting in July through now is our hamper numbers up 50 per cent over last year, which is significant.”
Earlier this fall, the food bank cancelled its annual fundraiser – the Empty Bowls Art Festival – to focus efforts instead on keeping its pantries stocked and feeding a growing number of clients.
The influx of people looking for food leading into Thanksgiving has pushed the food bank beyond capacity to meet the needs of all clients, according to McRitchie.
“We have seen demand (Thanksgiving) week outdo our capacity to fill all of the need,” she admitted. “We just have limited resources, space and time to get out all of the food that we need to put out into our community. We were full for the whole week for our regular hampers by Tuesday. We added multiple hamper (delivery) times and extended our hours this week to make sure we could meet as many demands as we could. The phone is ringing off the hook, and we are just struggling to keep up.”
McRitchie said one of the sadder and more worrying trends she has been noticing among clientele coming for food support is more families with young children.
“More and more families in our community are struggling,” she said. “We know that because of children that are included in the hampers. The national average is between about 34 and 36 per cent of hamper recipients. For children, our number is 48 per cent, which tells us it is a family (food shortage) problem. Many in our community are struggling to feed their kids.”
To take some of the pressure off, McRitchie said she has needed to hire additional staff and to rent off-site warehouse space to keep up with demand. She hoped people in the community would also step up even more than usual to help with the number of people now seeking food support in Airdrie.
“Airdrie has a heart that cares,” she said. “They do support us, and we need that support now more than ever. Every can of food and every dollar donated gets put directly to our program expenses and pays for the food we purchase and deliver to families.”
Despite the food bank’s recent issues, McRitchie would also encourage those needing additional food support in the community for themselves or their families to come forward.
“We are here for you,” she stated. “You need to reach out if you are struggling for support. Your neighbours care. It’s neighbours helping neighbours. Don’t hesitate to come when you need, and help when you can. Together we can get through hard times.”
