Empty grocery store shelves are creating headaches for the Regional Food Distribution Association.
Executive Director Volker Kromm says they are seeing a huge down-swing in donations as people stockpile food at home.
“People don’t know what’s ahead, so they’re conserving. But for us, we have to rob Peter to pay Paul in order to keep operating, and so we’re going to buckle down, and hopefully we’ll get some monetary donations,” Kromm says.
He points out they typically receive fewer donations at this time of year, even outside of a pandemic, but anxiety about the coming weeks has discouraged people from giving to the RFDA.
“Are we in a bit of a crunch? Absolutely. Everyone deserves to have access to food, and our food bank members across the region have been asking for more, and so we’re struggling to keep up with the demand,” Kromm admits.
The food bank official adds they were able to get a truck-load of food from Calgary and expect another truck this week. They reached out earlier in the COVID-19 crisis, which he says was fortunate timing as the truck arrived over the weekend.
“Which was a huge help, because they were very generous and donated a lot of the products we’re going to need,” he explains, noting it includes canned goods and four pallets of frozen food.
