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Demand for hampers outstrips donations to Red Deer Food Bank

Two local fundraisers to be held this weekend
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Fred Scaife, executive-director of the Red Deer Food Bank. (Photo by LANA MICHELIN/Advocate staff).

The struggling Red Deer Food Bank will get a badly needed boost in donations from two community fundraisers this weekend.

So far, food stocks are simply not keeping up with growing community demand for hampers, said the food bank’s executive-director Fred Scaife.

The situation is becoming so dire that Scaife said he recently did something he hasn’t had to do in a couple of decades – shop for basic staples, such as pasta.

He recounted buying a whole pallet of packaged noodles – only to find the shelves empty again a month later. “I was flabbergasted” he recalled. “I thought, ‘how do you go from having a whole skid of pasta, to running out, in less than four weeks?’

“Then I looked at our numbers and realized, well, that’s how …”

The Red Deer Food Bank has been feeding nearly 16,300 clients from January to Sept. 18 — that’s 2,300 more people than during the same period in 2016 when about 14,000 adults and children came through the doors.

The local charity gave out 6,986 hampers during the first 8 1/2 months of this year. This is nearly 1,000 more than were packed during the same time in 2016 — and nearly 3,000 more hampers than the 4,100 that were needed by Sept. 18 in 2013.

Scaife said enough staples such as pasta, canned beans, dry soup and rice are usually donated. But, while he feels Central Albertans are being as generous as ever, he believes Red Deer’s tight economy has thinned out the larders.

There are signs that things are improving, with more area job growth, and a less sharp rise in food bank clients in 2017 than in 2016. But Scaife said it generally takes 12 to 18 months for people who have suffered job loss to actually feel they are in a better position after they regain employment.

“You have to deal with the hard costs first,” he added, so people catch up on their rent and utility payments, and scrimp on food budgets.

lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com

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Photo by LANA MICHELIN/Advocate staff Fred Scaife, executive-director of the Red Deer Food Bank.