Over the years, many families and individuals have relied on the local food bank to meet their needs. On Sept. 14, Helping Hands, alongside Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) and the Cochrane Activettes, will be running a food drive at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre (SLSFSC) to acquire donations that will go toward filling food hampers.
The three-way partnership is like a well-oiled machine. FCSS co-ordinate who requires the hampers, The Helping Hands Society organizes the food drive and the Activettes run the food drive as well as make the hampers.
The food donated to the two food drives – one in April and the one coming up this month – fill between 50 and 60 per cent of the hampers needed for the year.
Beginning in 1995, the food drive grew to a point where it needed the help of the community to facilitate its growing demand. Helping Hands did just as its name suggests and took over in 2007. With the help of the community, its volunteers and partners, both drives can be possible.
Sandra Scott, programs manager at Helping Hands, organizes team leads within the local and rural communities and this allows donations to be mustered up and brought back into Cochrane.
"We have boxes with posters set up in the community associations and some of the churches, so they're collecting food as well and we are always looking for individual families that may live out in a little area in Bearspaw or Springbank and if they can just do their block or their little group of houses and then one person brings in the food. We are kind of unique in the rural areas about how we collect the donations," said Scott.
The goal of each drive is 1,200 boxes and while the last food drive in April exceeded this expectation, September seems to see a dip in boxes collected. However, Scott says she will be happy with just reaching the goal.
With the aid of between 700 and 850 volunteers, the food drive is a huge team effort that wouldn't be possible without all the help.
"It amazes me, we have just wonderful, wonderful volunteers in Cochrane and people are very aware of their community and their neighbours and want to help out so I have the best job in the world, it's really easy to work with Cochrane volunteers," said Scott. "It's a fun day. We have fun, we laugh, we take pictures, it's just a fun day."
Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) are the first point of contact for those seeking food hampers. FCSS facilitates the intake process and sees a broad range of people accessing the program. From low-income families to unexpected unemployment situations to seniors, the goal is to help those who are facing struggles in life.
"People have a range of needs, it's not one type of circumstance that we are serving," said Annmarie Tocher, resource centre co-ordinator at FCSS. "People could find that they're faced with income challenges or crises in their lives despite all of their best planning."
Food drive bags will be distributed throughout communities in Cochrane on Thursday, Sept. 12. If by some chance you don't receive a bag you can use your own, just make sure the bags are sitting outside your front door before 10 a.m. on the day of the drive (Sept. 14). Volunteers will whisk them up by noon and be knocking on doors to see if there are other donations. If you are not home, they will leave a note on your door showing how you can donate - if you are interested in doing so.
There are some items that are greatly needed at the moment and these include salmon, rice, large canned hams, canned tomatoes, canned pasta, 1 litre juice,100 per cent juice boxes, peanut-free granola bars, Kleenex, toothbrushes, toothpaste, diapers sizes 4T, 5T, 5 and 6.
From January to June, over 535 hampers were distributed in the Cochrane and Western Rocky View areas.
