The Wood Buffalo Food Bank has started to receive shipments of food and water to help replenish their stock.
Yesterday, Alberta Health Services approved the Food Banks temporary space.
READ MORE: Wood Buffalo Food Bank secures temporary space
The space will act as a packing centre which will ship emergency hampers to two distribution centres.
The food bank set up one distribution centre at Fort City Church in Thickwood, and the other at Golosky Landing in Gregoire.
Both will start operations on May 4, 2020.
Thickwood’s hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Wednesday and Friday, and 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Thursday.
In Gregoire, the hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Friday.
Each location is being prepared to hand out a maximum of 100 hampers per day which will last each household one week.
“It was so great to see our community come together and support each other while we did this, it is not an easy task and they did an incredible job.” Said Dan Edwards, Executive Director of the WBFB.
When distribution is mobilized and ready the Food Bank will announce locations and more details. Work is being done nonstop for this to happen as soon as possible.
At this time the Food Bank is only approved to distribute non-perishable items as they do not have fully functional storage for perishables.
All community donations are being directed to the Summit GM parking lot where volunteers are assisting those in need daily until the Food Bank is fully operational.
“With the expectation that we will be operating out of these temporary spaces for an extended period of time while we restore our facility, it was important for us to ensure we took the appropriate steps to set ourselves up to serve our community.” Said Edwards.
The Food Bank is working closely with WBVolunteers to organize volunteer shifts for all three locations and hope to have shifts available for sign up soon. Monetary donations are also being encouraged and can be made online.
They are extending huge thanks to all the members of the community who have taken up initiatives and time to help them get set up properly and safely.
It is expected that the Food Bank will be operating like this for an extended period while restoration efforts are made.
