Let’s prevent a “Cruel Summer”

This could be a “cruel summer” for many in our community.

We’re not talking about friends being away or being ditched by a significant other or even any kind of heatwave.

We’re talking about families in our community not having enough to eat… and us not being able to feed the increasing demand we expect in the coming weeks.

Throwback to 1984

According to a Parkland Institute article from 2016, in 1984 Alberta was finally beginning to climb out of a recession as our GDP had declined a couple percentage points for over a year. It’s this recession that created the need for the Red Deer Food Bank to open its doors.

Still there was a sense of optimism: When you look back at videos like this, you see people still smiling and not letting the worries of the world pull them down. We will recover. We always have. Things will get better.

Right?

What’s happening in 2024

The Food Bank typically lives its summers in a cash-crunch, but this year we are seeing more and more people than ever, and we're only 4 months into the year. It is going to be difficult to keep sending food hampers out the door without some serious help.

Demand has doubled since 2021.

80% of our funds for the year don't start to come in until late November.

We can't wait until November this year.

We need cash for food. And we need it now.

OK, but what about…?

We have been in the news and public eye a lot during this 40th Anniversary year. We had a successful food drive and paid tribute to our volunteers in April. But we also had a 19% increase in the people served as compared to April 2023. And April 2023 was 14% higher than April 2022…

You can see why we are worried. We are serving twice as many people as we did just a few years ago, but with the same amount of donations in food and funds.

Food drives are fantastic - they help top up our inventory. However 57% of what we receive are not the 'staples' we need to pack our hampers.

The capital grants we've received to secure fresh produce to supplement our hampers and improve our accessibility are very restricted: We can ONLY spend them on those projects. We can't divert even a nickel to buy food for our clients.

We get NO operating money from government. We apply for grants to make improvements to our capacity and facility, but there are no grants available for operations.

100% of the money donated from the public goes to purchasing food. Our "grocery bill", if you will, is about $25,0000 a month on average.

And as we all know, those dollars are not buying as much as they once did.

We are asking that if you can at all spare a few extra dollars over the summer, that you contribute to help feed someone in need in the community.

You can make a donation in our office or here on our website.

Remember: We will never telephone you to solicit donations.

Thank you as always for your continued support.