Feeding the need beyond our city limits

The Calgary Food Bank is part of a well-connected national and regional network that distributes surplus perishable and non-perishable food donations to other food banks with limited access to donations or the supply chain. This is our Food Share Program and is critical for many food banks in the province, and even across the country, in helping alleviate hunger in their communities.

We have the capacity to handle, store and distribute massive amounts of food making us an essential link in this network. With a fleet of 13 vehicles and well over 55 thousand square feet of storage, we have been able to support 18 food banks regionally and an additional 10 foodbanks outside of Alberta.

It’s like Christmas when the Calgary Food Bank truck arrives.
– Bobbi-Jo Faye Creston Valley Gleaners Society

The Creston Valley Gleaners Society runs a small but critical food bank in the quaint BC town. Bobbi-Jo Faye is the Gleaner’s Food Services Coordinator, and she requests food support every few months to supplement their hampers and other food and nutrition programs. Bobbi-Jo says it’s like Christmas when the Calgary Food Bank truck arrives. “We never know exactly what we’ll get, but it’s always amazing. You supply stuff we don’t normally receive, and we are able to direct the food to people we might not normally be able to support. Ethnic foods, ‘fun foods’ such as taco kits and chunky soups find their way into hungry tummies in the Creston Valley area thanks to you,” says Bobbi-Jo.

Closer to home and growing by leaps and bounds, the Okotoks Food Bank relies on our Food Share Program regularly. Warehouse Manager Carl Kennedy says the demand for food has increased during and since the pandemic.” We recently became a designated hub supplying food to Claresholm, Vulcan, Turner Valley, High River, and other rural food banks. Because of our partnership we can get food to these locations fast and therefore fresher,” says Carl. “In Okotoks, we have a meal of the month program where we supply the ingredients and a recipe, so that all clients need to prepare a healthy meal is water. We are lucky to be able to call up the Food Share Program at the Calgary Food Bank and say: we need a palette of canned corn or peas, and you deliver.”

I don’t think we’d be able to operate without your help.
– Gary Tether, Iyahrhe Nakoda Food Bank Society

Gary Tether is Board Co-Chair of the Iyahrhe Nakoda Food Bank Society that serves the Stoney Nakoda Nation west of Calgary. He says their demand for food support is very high and the Food Share Program is a major contributor of food, sending a truck at least once a month; sometimes more. Gary says “We are happy to take everything that we are sent, from canned vegetables, fruit, meat, pasta, to peanut butter. I don’t think we’d be able to operate without this as it would be impossible to fill our need out here without your help.”

We are proud to be able to provide delicious, nutritious food to other jurisdictions through our Food Share Program; and it wouldn’t be possible without the donation of food, funds, and volunteer time.