Ways to Help the Food Bank

Donations of Food

Donations can be dropped off at the Airdrie Food Bank during office hours or in drop boxes located in Safeway, Co-op, No Frills, and Superstore. Please check out what's needed most by clicking here.

Donations of Money

Donations of Money can be made online by using the Canada Helps.org button below or sent to the mailing address below.

Airdrie Food Bank 20 East Lake Way Airdrie, AB T4A 2J3

Tax receipts will be issued for donations of $10.00 or more. 

Donation of Time or Talents

The Airdrie Food Bank is powered by volunteers just like you! Airdrie Food Bank offers volunteer opportunities that make a significant difference to the lives of low-income people in Airdrie and the surrounding area (Crossfield, Balzac, Madden and outlying areas). Donations of time or talents (volunteers to pack hampers; help at special events or with our new building) are always welcome. To see which volunteer opportunities are currently available, please click here.

Organize a food drive or fundraising event

You can make a difference!

Every year individuals and organizations in our community find innovative ways to raise the thousands of pounds of food we need to fight hunger in the Airdrie area. We invite you to use your creativity, skills and knowledge to organize a food or fund drive for your office, school, community group or organization.

Even children can make a difference! Some children help by organizing food drives. Birthday parties are one popular option for food drives. Everyone invited is encouraged to bring non-perishable food items in place of a gift. And hopefully, it encourages a lifetime of giving to people in need.

To organize a food or fund drive follow these steps:

Step 1: Register your drive

Please click here to contact the Director of the Airdrie Food Bank to register your food drive. It's essential that we know about your plans before you start your drive so we can plan to have volunteers in place to accept, sort, store, and distribute the food that your drive brings in. Thank you!

Step 2: Review the resources below

This will help you to publicize your efforts and communicate the size and scope of our community's hunger problem. Generally, people will give if they know when, how, and why. Be creative!

Alberta Share Flyer
Current Most Needed Items
Ongoing food drop-off locations (sometimes people miss the deadline for your food drive, but are happy to drop the food off at a local drop-off point)

Step 3: Hold your food or fund drive

Fundraising drives

Because Airdrie Food Bank buys food in bulk, we can purchase twice as much food with your dollar than you can in a grocery store. Not only that, but food gets to those who need it faster because it doesn’t have to be sorted.

The best way to get funds for food to Airdrie Food Bank is to send a cheque for the total cash collected. Please indicate if it is designated for food. Please also forward any cheques from individuals to Airdrie Food Bank. Before sending the individual cheques please ensure they follow Airdrie Food Bank's guidelines on receiving tax receipts for financial gifts (so that we can send tax receipts in a timely manner).

 

Food Donation drives:

Step 4: Get your food/funds to Airdrie Food Bank

In order to identify the food that you raised, please attach this donation poster to all boxes of food. This allows us to identify all of the food collected from your efforts and report back to you what the total amount of collection was.

Raise awareness in your community and with politicians

Canadian Association of Food Banks (CAFB), of which Airdrie Food Bank is a member, makes the following recommendations to Government:

To address the root causes of hunger in Canada, the CAFB recommends that the government:
• Reform Employment Insurance to address significant declines in coverage and improve accessibility
• Provide income supplements for low-wage earners
• Increase child tax benefits for families on welfare
• Increase welfare rates and improve accessibility to welfare programs

To address the needs of hungry Canadians in the short-term, the CAFB recommends that Government:
• Provide tax incentives for corporate food donors to ensure that food banks in Canada have enough food available to meet the continued need for assistance. Current tax laws discourage food donors and have resulted in food being destroyed to meet Canada Customs requirements.

What you can do

Tell leaders about your concerns regarding Hunger

We urge you to contact decision-makers and build relationships. Hunger and poverty need to have a prominent place on the public agenda. Help us draw our leaders' attention to these pressing issues.

You and/or your organization can help in the following ways:

Send an e-mail to the political parties
Write a letter to the candidates
Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper
Call your local representative and ask for a meeting

Download the CAFB Advocacy Kit

Invite a Food Bank representative to speak at your function

Food Bank staff and volunteers are happy to take the opportunity to speak at a meeting of your service club, employee association or religious function about hunger and poverty issues.

 

Thank you for caring!