P.A. Food bank executive director Kim Scruby (left) and operations manager Laura Uvery (right) accepted a donation from Safeway manager and franchise owner Rahul Kaushik on Friday, June 24. (Teena Monteleone/paNOW Staff)

By paNOW Staff

hamper helper

Safeway donation is ‘perfect timing’ for food bank

Jun 24, 2024 | 2:00 PM

When Kim Scruby started working at the Prince Albert Food Bank seven years ago, the organization handed out a few more than 700 hampers a month. Today, that number has nearly doubled to 1,300 hampers per month on average.

“Minimum we hand out is 1,100 per month. The hampers are a three-day supply of food so that translates to around 3,200 people helped,” Scruby said.

So, when Safeway made a more than $12,000 donation to the food bank on Friday, Scruby could breathe a small sigh of relief.

“This will easily get us about two months’ worth of hampers,” he said. “And during the summertime, you know, our volume stays the same. Sometimes it goes up a bit, but our donations do go down, so again this is perfect timing.”

Rahul Kaushik, the owner of the Prince Albert Safeway said the donation was possible because of the grocery store’s generous customers.

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“I’m really proud of my customers. They are among the best donors in Saskatchewan,” Kaushik said.

The $12,000 came in the form of gift cards for the food bank. In addition to the funds, Safeway also regularly contributes care packages of the most needed items. The packages $5 and $10 packages are offered to customers for purchase as a simple way to make a donation with a direct and local impact.

“They’ve been doing that for us for quite a few years. We pick those up every week. We get eggs and all kinds of support from them. We tend to rely on these types of donation so its much appreciated,” said Scruby.

The Prince Albert Food Bank also provides baby food and formula, diapers, hygiene products, cleaning supplies, and pet food and supplies for those in need.

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panews@pattisonmedia.com