For some, Alberta’s economic downturn is not much more than scary headlines in the media. For those people making trips to the food bank every week, it is an all too harsh reality.
With the provincial unemployment rate threatening to hit the eight per cent mark, tens of thousands of Albertans are without work and many who have re-entered the workforce are doing so at reduced wages.
That is putting immense pressure on charities such the food bank
Need at the Cochrane Activettes Food Bank experienced a dramatic increase last month. In March, the food bank gave out 91 hampers compared to 54 in during the same month in 2015. Those 91 hampers represent the most the food bank has given in its history.
For the most part, the food bank has been keeping up with the need and although it did run out of some staples such as rice, cash donations were sufficient to purchase the items needed to make up the shortfall.
While the need is up, the food bank has been fortunate when it comes to donation levels. Its April 16 food drive collected 910 cartons of non-perishable food, up from the 830 cartons collected in October 2015.
Other food banks in the province are reporting similar situations of increased need being offset by a growing generosity within the community.
It goes to show that Cochrane, like the majority of the province has a tremendous sense of community. It is nice to see so many helping to ensure their neighbours and friends won’t go hungry.
The next time you debate whether supporting the food bank is a worthy endeavour, remember there might be a time when you need it yourself. Few plan to be in that situation and we commend the Activettes for having the service available when difficult times arise. Also keep in mind, nearly half the people who benefit from food bank hampers are children.
The family of Ryan Lane, a former Cochrane resident who was murdered in 2012, has found justice after a jury found his murderers – ex-girlfriend Sheena Cuthill and her husband and brother-in-law Timothy and Wilhelm Rempel – guilty last week.
The judge later sentenced all involved to 25 years in prison with no chance of parole. While Lane has not lived in Cochrane for a number of years, he still has connections in the community. Many people he attended school with still live here and for them, as well as Lane’s, family the day he went missing and the discovery the he was murdered came as a shock.
The past four years of evidence gathering and the subsequent trial of Cuthill and the Rempels have been difficult on many levels. Not only was the nature and motive of the murder abhorrent, the trial was graphic and a sad reminder of what happened to the man who was a friend, brother, son and father.
That last point is particularly poignant. While we can all cheer that justice was served, we must still remember that Lane’s child will grow up without her father and with the knowledge her mother is a murderer. That might be the saddest aspect of this whole sordid ordeal.
