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ecfoundation.org 9
Edmonton’s Food Bank has a
radical appetite for change
BY LIAM NEWBIGGING
Despite an initial influx of high demand — and
having to pivot with plexiglass barriers, masking
and social distancing — things were manageable at
Edmonton’s Food Bank for most of the first year of
the pandemic. It was the calm before the storm.
In the early morning of Friday, October 16, 2020,
two masked men stole catalytic converters off of three
food bank vehicles, rendering them inoperable.
Tamisan Bencz-Knight, manager of strategic
relationships & partnerships at Edmonton’s Food
Bank, recalls the aftermath. When the food bank
posted a video of the theft, she says Edmonton
Community Foundation (ECF) stepped up.
“Edmonton Community Foundation was really
good to us that October,” Bencz-Knight recalls.
ECF and Kingsgate Automotive paid for the
replacements on the three vehicles. But even more
catalytic converters were stolen in December of 2020,
prompting the food bank to invest even more funds
into repairs as well as security — and then came the
cost-of-living crisis.
Edmonton’s Food Bank’s client numbers
have doubled since June 2020. The flagship food
hamper program reached heights of 35,000 people
a month with children accounting for 40 per cent
of that number. This doesn’t include the other 300
organizations (including 88 schools) that Edmonton’s
Food Bank serves.
ECF provided a $50,000 Rapid Response Grant
in July 2022, a $75,000 BIPOC grant for culturally
diverse food security needs in December 2022 and
an additional $50,000 investment in February 2023.
In fact, Edmonton’s Food Bank has accessed more
than $400,000 in funding through ECF since 2022.
However, food insecurity and demand for Food Bank
services keep skyrocketing.
For Bencz-Knight, the solution to an ever-growing
clientele lies beyond just giving out food.
“Edmonton’s Food Bank will never solve, nor have
we ever said that we will solve, food insecurity,” she
says. “Food insecurity will always be a symptom of poverty.”
In the early 2000s, the food bank added a second part
to its mission statement: to seek solutions to the causes of
hunger, but, at the time, the non-profit didn’t “know what
that truly meant.” That changed when the Beyond Food
Program started in 2017, funded in part by ECF.
The program allows food bank staff to sit down with
people and ask them what factors outside of food are causing
them to come up short. Sometimes, it’s mental health issues,
and the food bank is able to refer clients to the Canadian
Mental Health Association. Sometimes it’s addiction or
domestic violence. Other times, its occupational skills like
specific training, soft skills or language skills.
Bencz-Knight recalls one Beyond Food client who was
a newcomer to Canada and needed help. He was a frequent
food bank user, but Bencz-Knight hasn’t heard from him
since the non-profit helped him receive the additional
English and fork-lift training he needed for employment.
Edmonton’s Food Bank opened its new Niso building this
year, which houses The Depot – for community members
needing to access a food hamper – and a new service called
The Pantry, which is still in development but was identified
as a possible solution to the rising need and will help clients
stock up on certain essentials in-between hampers.
The new space will expand the Edmonton’s Food Bank’s
ability to store and deliver food, free up more space for
programs like Beyond Food, and help address some other
rising needs seen in the community. But Bencz-Knight is still
looking for other creative solutions, some that might be more
radical.
“Right now, I think we have to try some extremes and
some real change,” she says. “We have to create an appetite
for failure, to try something different with the ultimate
goal of truly making an impact. Our community has many
challenges. We are grateful for the continued help from ECF
and Edmontonians as they continue to give.”
Thinking OUTSIDE
the Hamper