Feeding Airdrie

KEEPING UP WITH DEMAND

STORY BY JIM ZANG

“Right now, about 43 per cent of our clients are children.”

Airdrie Food Bank Executive Director Lori McRitchie, centre, with two Food Bank volunteers.

82 airdrielife.com | WINTER 2022/2382 airdrielife.com | WINTER 2022/23 There’s a quiet crisis going on across the country at Canadian food banks.

“We’re literally seeing double the numbers of people who need our help,” says Lori McRitchie, Executive Director of the Airdrie Food Bank. “The level of agency response is almost on the scale we see following a natural disaster.”

The current crisis, she says, is the result of a ‘perfect storm’ of factors, including the Covid 19 pandemic and related business closures and job losses, inflation – especially the cost of food and gas – interest rates, and even the sudden influx of Ukrainian refugees.

“We’re putting all of our energy into feeding people,” says McRitchie, noting the Food Bank is seeing an average of 1,000 pantry visits a month, in addition to their other programs. “Our staff and volunteers are so busy we’re just not able to do anything over and above, including some of our fundraisers – which is why we had to cancel the Festival of Empty Bowls this year. We’re struggling just to keep up.”

You wouldn’t know it to drive around Airdrie, a fairly affluent town, but there are hungry families here, and that’s part of the problem: you can’t see hungry.

“The size of families is increasing,” says Christine Taylor, Events, Marketing and Communications Manager for the Food Bank. “Right now, about 43 per cent of our clients are children.”

The Food Bank works with local schools to provide a daily breakfast program plus prepare more than 200 lunches a week for students. The Snack Attack program sees an average of 750 snacks-per-week delivered to more than 25 area schools nearly every day. Families are able to pick up baby formula as part of a collaborative referral-based program with AHS , and a new ‘Kid Pack’ initiative is averaging 400 packs per week!

“We’re really focused on not having hungry kids,” says McRitchie.

“Hungry kids can’t learn,” adds Taylor.

Meanwhile, the organization’s resources are being pushed to keep up with demand. The walk-in pantry program is averaging around 50-60 families per day, with a high of 97 one day, says McRitchie. “That used to be a full week’s total.”

The food hamper program averages about 85 hampers a week, with families allowed one hamper per month. Do the math and that’s more than 250 hungry families. Maybe your friends or neighbours.

When you see the word ‘hamper’ you may think ‘picnic basket’ but, in fact, Food Bank hampers are large grocery carts full of food and other household necessities. Each cart is filled with items from all food groups, selected specifically for a certain family based on number of family members, ages, etc. and is meant to last seven to 10 days.

In fact, in addition to the 5,000 square-feet of space at their main location, they’re recently rented an off-site warehouse with another 3,000plus square-feet of storage.

“We live in a community that really supports us,” says McRitchie. “Food Banks across the country wish they had the support we have.”

The Airdrie Food Bank accepts non-perishable food and monetary donations from private citizens and businesses alike, making more than 70 food pick-ups a week from local restaurants and stores, funding and relies on the goodwill of more than 250 active volunteers.

“We just facilitate the goodwill of our community,” says McRitchie. “You can determine the health of a community by the functioning of their Food Bank. I really believe that. It’s been a real lesson in resiliency the past couple of years, and I can’t thank all of our staff, supporters and volunteers enough.” life