More people needed aid from the Red Deer Food Bank on Monday than on any other single day during the organization’s 25-year history.
Executive director Fred Scaife said that some 400 people were provided with food, which is about double the average amount of people that they help per day.
Requests for assistance are typically taken until 4 p.m., but Scaife said they had to quit taking orders by 3 p.m. on Monday because staff and volunteers could no longer keep up with the demand. They were also running out of space as more and more hampers were packed.
He stressed that they did not run out of food supplies.
“Many, many people, children included, went hungry last night because of the decision I made,” Scaife said.
“We had no choice but to make that decision because we’ve never dealt with this many people before. We only have so much space. We only have so many bodies. It was just about like trying to squeeze a river through a garden hose yesterday. It was incredible.”
A total of seven volunteers and staff worked to meet clients’ needs on Monday compared to the three or four people who can handle the typical volume, Scaife said.
He figured the wintery forecast may have played a role in motivating clients to go the food bank before the city was blanketed with snow.
He also reasoned that the conclusions of seasonal jobs and an approaching increase in utility costs during the winter months may have also spurred the increase.
Food need tapered off Tuesday although Scaife said the demand was still slightly higher than normal.
The local reality is just one example of how a portion of the population across the country accesses food. Food Banks Canada released HungerCount 2010 on Tuesday.
The national report states that food bank usage record was set in March 2010 as nearly 868,000 people were assisted across Canada that month. Organizations typically provide food for more than 700,000 people each month nation-wide.
It was also noted that food bank use has risen by 28 per cent across the country over the past two years and that every province has experienced an increase in demand over this past year.
The report found that Alberta usage increased by 60 per cent as the province went from boom in 2008 to bust in 2009.
Scaife said the local food bank saw demand nearly double during the recession.
“The recession has evened out,” Scaife said. “Our demands have not been as high as they were last year. But periodically we run into days like (Monday) that just make you go, ‘What happened?’”
HungerCount also looked at clientele and found that 38 per cent of those who access food banks are children or youth under the age of 18.
Scaife said the largest demographic at the Red Deer Food Bank is one- or two-parent families with children. Seven to eight years ago, the largest local demographic was single or coupled adults without kids.
“All across the board, families have slipped further and further behind in the economic strata,” he said.
Scaife said that the Red Deer Food Bank has provided food for around 18,000 different people in the past year.
ptrotter@www.reddeeradvocate.com