Fall 2024 Comfort Food
COMFORT FOOD | Newsletter
A Message From The CEO
Season’s Greetings!
While it seems a little early for holiday greetings, the jolly season is just around the corner, and here at the Calgary Food Bank we are preparing to celebrate by raising food and funds for the winter months.
Keeping consistent with the trends we’ve seen over the last few years, 2024 saw unprecedented demand for food support. We are currently serving up to 750 households a day, all while continuing to expand our partnerships with other organizations throughout Calgary.
While the support we have received from our community has been incredible, our mission of making food accessible to everyone in our city is not without its challenges.
Our annual City-Wide Food Drive brought in about half of the amount of food as years prior. This speaks to the overwhelming increase in the cost of groceries that we’ve been experiencing.
Opportunities to support us are plentiful including Stuff a Bus, The Mayor’s Food Drive and CBC’s Make the Season Kind Campaign.
Sincerely,
Melissa From
New 5 Year Strategic Plan: #FEEDYYC
We are proud to announce that we have launched a new 5-year strategic plan, along with our new mission statement:
“To make food accessible to everyone in our city”.”
This statement embodies our core belief that no one in our community should go without food and serves as a guiding principal for our future.
To bring our mission to life, we are focused on three key pillars that will shape our efforts:
Client-Centred: We focus on creating a positive experience by making our services accessible, offering clients choice, and treating everyone with respect and compassion.
Community-Focused: We believe in driving change through education, collaboration with partners, and engaging the community to address food insecurity.
Committed to Excellence: We continuously improve our processes, ensure efficient operations, and foster a supportive culture to maximize our impact.
This mission, alongside these pillars, will guide the Calgary Food Bank as we build a stronger future for our community. Together, we can make food accessibility a reality for everyone in our city.
Partners In Action
The Drop-In Centre provides emergency shelter to those experiencing houselessness and ensures everyone in their care receives a nutritious meal.
SROI REPORT
The Calgary Food Bank’s newly released Social Return on Investment (SROI) report shows the broader impacts of our Emergency Food Hamper program.
The study outlines 6 secondary benefits clients experience through accessing a hamper and determines that for every dollar donated, the Calgary Food Bank provides $9.84 worth of social value.
New Client Choice Distribution Model
We are very excited to announce changes to our Emergency Food Hamper distribution model. Clients can now choose what items they receive in their food hampers. These changes are designed to increase client centricity and enhance client choice, aligning with our commitment to ensure that every individual who turns to us has a positive and empowering experience when accessing our services.
What we’ve seen so far:
95% like the food choices.
76% say it suits their dietary restrictions better than our old model.
73% say it suits their cultural requirements more than our old model.
76% say they are able to use more food than the old model.
82% say they are able to save more on groceries than the old model.
“I agree now about how we were asked about the choices. I think food will be consumed and I can think of better menus each meal.”
“This was my first experience with the new food choice model. I like that you can pick what you will consume and not have food go to waste. Keep up the great work that you do.”
Calgary Corporate Challenge
The Calgary Corporate Challenge is a yearly event where companies participate in volunteering at local non-profits in the name of teambuilding.
This year we received:
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$107,104.23 in donations.
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Over 60,000 pounds of food.
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3,195 volunteer hours.
We recognized 3 corporations at the closing celebration:
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd: for their dedication to keeping our clients top of mind.
DIRTT Environmental Solutions: for being so willing to pilot our Time and Treasure program.
Obsidian Engineering: for fully embracing the charity challenge and doing all they could do to support our cause.
City Wide Food Drive
Our 20th annual City-Wide Food Drive took place on September 21, 2024. 8,000 volunteers went door-to-door to gather food donations and bring them back to 7 drop-off locations throughout the city.
We received 229,535 pounds of food and $55,191.04 in donations which will be crucial in seeing us through to the holiday season.
This is our biggest food drive of the year and is hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Without them this effort would not be possible and we are incredibly grateful to pass their generosity on to our clients.
Thanksgiving Weekend with Doug and Paul
This year’s theWALK.ca, hosted by Paul and Doug Lavoie, was an outstanding success! The event was held on Monday, October 14th at Princess Island Park.
They raised over $340,000 in support of the Calgary Food Bank and there was a turnout of over 400 participants. Thank you to everyone who came and took part in this amazing day!
Tim Hortons Smile Cookie
Mark your calendars! From November 19th to the 24th, Tim Hortons Holiday Smile Cookies are back! Half of each cookie purchased for $1.50 will go to help support the Calgary Food Bank and the other half will go towards Tim Hortons Foundation Camps.
Make The Season Kind
For the 39th year, our friends at CBC Calgary will be helping to raise food and funds this giving season. From December 6 – 19 Calgarians can join by donating and sharing their acts of kindness in our community. Tune into CBC Calgary to learn more.
“With the fruit and vegetables and good meals we are not tired, exhausted, depleted of our vitamins… As long as we are eating, our moods are good.”
Calgary Food Bank Client
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