The Prince Albert Food Bank has seen donations drop recently. (File Photo/paNOW Staff)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

Food drive

Businesses partner to support the food bank

Jun 9, 2020 | 10:00 AM

Prince Albert residents will soon have the chance to take part in a big one-week food drive.

Starting next Monday June 15 Lake Country Co-op’s food store in P.A. will be offering customers the opportunity to purchase food bags which can then be donated to the local food bank. The drive is a partnership also involving Broda Group, Conexus Credit Union and Lakeland Ford and Hyundai.

Jill Dumanski, director of marketing and community relations for Lake Country Co-op, said they were motivated to put on the drive after finding out the food bank could use some help.

“They were telling us that they’re really low on actual food, so that’s important to raise a lot of food donations for them,” she said.

Generally, Co-op and their partners take part in the Feeding our Future Program, which provides emergency lunches to kids in need. Dumanski explained with schools being closed they haven’t been able to make donations to support that initiative. She added some of the people supported by the Feeding our Future Program may be making use of the food bank currently.

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“We thought what better way to do than do a week blast for the food bank,” she said.

Kim Scruby, executive director of the P.A. Food Bank said the timing of the initiative was important given the current circumstances.

“We’re quite excited about this, with the whole quarantining and self-isolation, our food donations have been down,” he said.

Amid the COVID-19 situation the food bank has been working with a number of other organizations to get food hampers to people in need.

Scruby said the donation bags being sold at Co-op are good ones as they contain non-perishable items such as pasta and canned goods, which are always appreciated. Scruby added the group of companies organizing the food drive took it upon themselves to put on the event.

“They took the initiative to set this up and we’re grateful for it,” he said.

MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca