By paNOW Staff

Mix 101 blasts hunger with more than $20,000 in donations for Share-A-Meal Food Bank

Dec 15, 2015 | 11:04 AM

Mix 101’s second-annual Ball Breaker promotion has raised $20,365 and 6,000 lbs. of food.

Listeners raised $5,180 in cash donations. Lakeland Ford matched the first $3,000, with the P.A. Co-op donating $2,000 and Potashcorp. contributing $10,180 as part of their commitment to match all donation.

The Mix and food bank team had hoped to fill a one-ton truck with donations. They tripled that goal.

The morning show team was at the Cornerstone Co-op from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., helping to raise money for Prince Albert’s Share-A-Meal Food Bank.

In Prince Albert, the number of food bank users has doubled in two years.  They have struggled to feed nearly 2,000 people each month, half of those people are children

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When interviewed by paNOW in November, Food Bank co-manager Wes Clark said people are faced with income disparity, as some people have more than enough, while others have nearly nothing.

A single person or single parent living off a fulltime minimum wage job would be left with just over $1,300 a month after deductions. That’s why many people are forced to pick between buying food and paying rent, Clark explained.

In Prince Albert, 75 per cent of those who use the food bank rent homes on the open market, and another 20 per cent qualify as hidden homeless, with up to 300 living people in Prince Albert qualifying as hidden homeless.

Only 50 per cent said they were on social assistance, while 20 per cent have no income whatsoever.

“Without an address, you can’t collect assistance,” explained Clark.

Thirty-two per cent of users are two parent families, 31 per cent are single parent families, 26 per cent are singles and 11 per cent are couples without children.

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