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, Extra Foods, Superstore or at the Calgary Regional Health Authority Building. 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.

Please email us or phone us at 948-0063 if you would like more information on Volunteering opportunities.

General Volunteer Opportunities

Administration, Data Entry & General Office Help

Help Airdrie Food Bank operate smoothly by assisting with administrative, computer and office work in different departments. This help could include correspondence with Member Agencies, helping produce receipts for donors or entering data from food collection activities. It's a chance to sharpen your telephone and organizational skills and your computer literacy--especially Word and Excel.

Agency Service, Warehouse & Operations Assistance

Help get food out to people struggling with hunger by receiving and distributing food, preparing orders for hampers, packing boxes and leading groups who come to sort food for a day.

Pick-up Drivers

Volunteer positions are as varied as the volunteers themselves

Airdrie Food Bank is always open to people who have other talents that they can offer to assist our efforts. We have a web designer that donates their skills, an accountant who donates their skills, a graphic designer that donates their skills, people who are available only on weekends, or people who are available only during the early mornings. Whatever your skills, or available time, there is a place for you. We encourage you to let us know what you want to do or an idea you have to help us.

Group Bookings (4 or more volunteers)

Airdrie Food Bank welcomes group bookings. If your school or organization is interested in volunteering as a group, please feel free to contact us so that we can discuss a good fit between us.

Public Food Sorting Days

Particularly during major food drives, we need volunteers to come to our warehouse and sort donated food. Come out and lend a hand!

Special Event Volunteers

Have some fun while helping to fight hunger. Airdrie Food Bank needs a crew of special events volunteers to increase public awareness of hunger issues and work at events that raise food and funds. Examples of the duties of special event volunteers include collecting funds during sporting events, taking part in the Canada Day parage, helping at the Home & Garden Show, or sitting at a collection table in a local grocery store. Many of these events occur at night or over the weekend.

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!