Mountain View Food Bank (MVFB) is budgeting for a 30 per cent increase in hamper distribution, etc., thanks to the downturn in the economy, director Pat Graham says.
“We have budgeted for a 30 per cent increase for this year. And of course, depending on what happens in the later part of this year, it could be another 30 per cent next year,” Graham said during an interview with the Albertan.
“How long can we all keep going? Somebody has to help us somewhere along the line.”
Graham said food bank usage just seems to continue to climb, compared to a year or two ago.
“Our four-people hampers – that's four people in a family – are up 113 per cent,” she said.
By the end of February this year, the Mountain View Food Bank had provided 694 food hampers in order to feed a total of 1,816 people. Of that, 1,184 were adults and 633 were children.
“In total, we're up 24 per cent in hampers and 35 per cent in people,” Graham says.
She points out that for some reason that no one can figure out, March is traditionally the busiest month for food banks. That's why it's the month Statistics Canada chooses to base its hunger count on.
“Last March, which was our biggest month, we did around 500 hampers, and I would imagine it's going to be way up this year,” Graham says.
With the current downturn, Graham anticipates the remaining months of the year will be relatively busy too.
“There doesn't seem to be any stoppage. It doesn't seem to quieten down at all – it just keeps going,” she says. “We're buying groceries -- unbelievable – every month.”
Graham says last year, MVFB obtained about $900,000 worth of food to feed people, $335,000 of which was spent by food bank volunteers. The rest came from donations.
The cost of groceries has been rising, putting lots of pressure on MVFB volunteers. However, Graham says they're coping, thanks to big-hearted county residents.
“The people in the area are super, super generous. There's always something going on that seems to bring in money – here, there and everywhere,” Graham says, noting that hockey tournaments for example have brought in much-needed donations.
“November, December, January are the months when we bring in most of the money. So we have to budget to keep that money so that we can survive the rest of the year,” Graham says.
She says this past December residents were very generous once again. Traditionally, about 40 per cent of the MVFB's donations come in December.
“Everybody just seems to pitch in,” she says. “The churches have bins and the grocery stores, they donate as much as they possibly can.”
She says truckloads of food are often brought in from Calgary as well.
“We work on a tight budget. We watch what we spend and where we spend it and like I say, the people in the county are very, very generous. We've never, ever been without food and we've never, ever been so short that we can't give people hampers. And that's really good, considering that we've been in business since, I think, 1987.
“We just have to keep trucking along and hoping for the very, very best.”
The MVFB held its annual general meeting last week.
Lynn Reid of Cremona is the organization's new president. He replaces Vicky Johnson.
"The people in the county are very, very generous. We've never, ever been without food and we've never, ever been so short that we can't give people hampers."PAT GRAHAMDIRECTORMOUNTAIN VIEW FOOD BANK
