The Red Deer Food Bank has started a campaign called the 10,000 Club, asking Central Albertans to donate $5 each month to help make sure no one in the region goes hungry. The food bank says if 10,000 of the area’s 300,000 residents chip in that amount, no one in the community would go to bed hungry.
The organization is currently handing out emergency food to 2,550 people every month, and more than 1,000 of them are children. Visits have shot up 140 percent since 2019, meaning demand has more than doubled since before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Executive director Mitch Thomson says that last year, the Red Deer Food Bank gave out hampers to 30,563 people, which was a 10 percent jump from the 27,700 served in 2023. That was the highest number in the food bank’s history, which goes back to April 1984 when it started as a temporary measure to help people impacted by the recession at the time.
The food bank notes that even though Central Alberta has plenty of farmland and food production, many families are still struggling with rising costs. Around 51 percent of people who use the food bank only need help once or twice before they get back on their feet, suggesting that a lot of them are dealing with temporary money problems.
Monthly donations would give the food bank a steady source of funding, which helps with planning and keeping shelves stocked all year. The 10,000 Club campaign asks people to sign up for a $5 monthly gift, working out to $60 a year.
The Red Deer Food Bank serves a huge area of 20,000 square kilometres and also supplies food to other food banks in communities including Blackfalds, Lacombe, Ponoka, Olds, Rocky Mountain House, Innisfail, Sylvan Lake, and Stettler.
