The Humboldt and District Food Bank is partnering with local grocery stores for the holidays.聽
鈥淭he three grocery stores are raising products for us at this time,鈥� said Shirley Reiter, treasurer and board member of the Humboldt and District Food Bank. 鈥淣o Frills is doing a national campaign where any customer donations go to a special bin, I think they鈥檙e using a cart, and we keep track of their donations and information is forwarded at the end of December to Food Banks Canada.鈥�
No Frills isn鈥檛 alone in partnering with the food bank.
鈥淭he Co-op and Sobeys are selling bags that are pre-made, and I believe the Co-op sells them for $10 a bag and Sobeys has $5 or $10 as options,鈥� Reiter said. 鈥淪o those are ways the grocery stores have partnered with the food bank.鈥�
鈥淭his is their holiday promotion... We get the product that comes in those bags. So what happens is the Co-op makes up their bags.鈥�
When a customer buys a pre-made bag, the bag is sent to the food bank, and the customer pays the fee.
鈥淭he product comes pre-packaged from some warehouse, so the customer decides if they want to buy a $5 bag or a $10 bag, then again we get the product that is in those bags.鈥�
Operation wise, the food bank doesn鈥檛 change their hampers for Christmas.
鈥淭he reason the food bank doesn鈥檛 do a Christmas hamper is because our clients can only come once every four weeks,鈥� Reiter said. 鈥淪o we would give someone a hamper from the beginning of December, and we wouldn鈥檛 expect them to go hungry or not use that food and wait until Christmas.鈥�
For those requiring assistance, the Humboldt Food Bank is open Tuesday afternoons from 2 pm to 4 pm.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 when we expect the bulk of our clients to come. We don鈥檛 expect clients to call ahead of time, so we鈥檙e never really sure on a Tuesday how many will come.
Currently the food bank supports 90 to 110 families a month.
While some food banks throughout the province are struggling, such as Melfort, Humboldt is doing well according to Reiter.
鈥淭he Humboldt Food Bank is doing extremely well right now. Humboldt and area is a very giving community and several years ago we were struggling. We weren鈥檛 sure whether we would continue or not. But we made some changes and things have gone extremely well, we were able to put in a new building.鈥�
鈥淚 would just like to thank the community for their support of the Humboldt and District Food Bank,鈥� Reiter said. 鈥淚 always say to people, 鈥榠t鈥檚 really sad the community needs a food bank, but it鈥檚 also so great that we can provide that service for clients that need it.鈥欌��
