Thousands of volunteers mobilize as Calgary Food Bank sends out request for ‘food and funds’

Food drive takes over Calgary Saturday 8,000 volunteers collected hundreds of thousands of pounds of food and funds for the Calgary Food Bank Saturday.

An estimated 8,000 volunteers mobilized across the city Saturday as the Calgary Food Bank went door-to-door collecting food and funds.

After a record level of demand in 2023, the organization’s president and CEO Melissa From said it’s just as strong so far in 2024.

“What we’ve seen over the past 12 months is folks continuing to be impacted,’ From said in an interview with CTV News.

“Increases in mortgage rates and various cost of living increases –especially the cost of food has gone up – so much, so we’re still seeing that need growing in our city.”

From said one noticeable change has been in the rise of people using the food bank who have full-time jobs and still can’t make ends meet.

Saturday, the food bank mobilized its lengthy volunteer list in order to collect food and financial contributions.

"Today we're hoping we collect somewhere in the ballpark of 400,000 to 500,000 pounds of food," she said. "And there was a time when that would have lasted us well into the year, but I would say that (food) will stick around a couple of months for us."

The food will be collected by a small army of food bank volunteers, she said.

“Eight thousand volunteers are making this happen today,” she said. “It’s absolutely incredible – many hands make light work.

“We have incredible folks in the community who support us every day as volunteers, and especially today.”

From added that if you missed the food bank volunteers Saturday, you can always make a financial contribution.

“For every dollar donated, we can donate $3.50 worth of food,” she said, “so those financial contributions go a really a long way.”

Sergio Rodriguez, from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, said he was there Saturday to greet church members who were volunteering.

He said his message to them was short and sweet: “We need to help those in need.”

For more information about the Calgary Food Bank, go here.

With files from CTV's Tyler Barrow