The Wood Buffalo Food Bank has announced extended hours in the hopes of meeting a demand that is continually increasing, and with the goal of eliminating the previous two week wait times in place. The new hours for the food bank starting on April 25 will be from 8:30 am until 8 pm from Monday through Friday. Volunteers can still visit the food bank on the second Saturday of each month. There are also two new positions being added to help reduce wait times as well. According to a press release statement from Arianna Johnson, the executive director of the food bank, “Now that we have identified and hired these two new people we are just about ready to extend our hours; however, these two new employees still need some time to be trained.”

Dan Edwards, client intake manager for the Wood Buffalo Food Bank, also talked about the extended hours. Edwards said that the current wait time of two weeks is something that is heartbreaking. “I feel bad telling someone ‘I’m sorry, I understand that your family is starving and that there’s no food in the house, I just can’t do anything until this point.’ Will there still be wait times at times, yes. But if we can shorten it down back to a couple of days at most, that’s the ideal timeframe that we want.” Clients must make an appointment to use the food bank, and schedule a time that they can create a food hamper with the assistance of the staff at the food bank.