The Cranbrook Food Bank is feeding 12 per cent of Cranbrook’s population — but everyone is having to dig deeper these days.
With all the economic and housing pressures, inflation and rising food prices, the Food Bank has seen increased need among their clientele, but also a drop in donations as more and more people have to make their food dollars go farther.
Nonetheless, Cranbrook has proven to be a compassionate place, and on April 27 there is a chance to help out the Food Bank with a community sponsored Food Drive.
“We always appreciate our community support — it really takes a community to help each other out,” said Julie Rose, Executive Director of the Cranbrook Food Bank.”
“There will be a crew going around distributing the bags this weekend [April 20 and 21], so those will show up on everybody’s door step,” Rose said.
“Folks just need to, if they are able to, put in some non-perishables. We have a wish list of our top needed items stapled to each bag. They place those items in the bag, and on April 27 they will be picked up between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.”
Some of the top items include canned beans, canned meat, healthy school snacks, crackers and cereal, baking and cooking supplies (like four, sugar, oil and spices, Kraft dinner, Hamburger Helper, rice, pasta and pasta sauce, canned soups, and toilet paper.
Watch out that donations are not past the best-before dates.
Donors can put the items in the bags and place them where it can easily be seen from the street for the crews to pick up. Crews will not be ringing doorbells or soliciting donations.
Christmas and the holiday season is a familiar time for food bank support, but there is never a downtime for the clients and the services the Food Bank provides..
“Right now we have over 2,700 active clients, so we are feeding just over 12 per cent of Cranbrook,” Rose said. “As the need increases we need more and more support from our community.
“Unfortunately, as need increases, donations do decrease. Everyone’s having to dig a little bit deeper. We go to the grocery store, things have been costing a lot more over the past three years. Groceries have gone up over 40 per cent. It’s tough for everyone. And tough for us, because of our increased client numbers. Even though we can purchase wholesale, it’s more expensive for us as well — our dollars don’t stretch as far either.”