A $1 million donation to the Wood Buffalo Food Bank will benefit local families and the community. The food bank recently saw a drastic increase in demand after the wildfire and evacuation, forcing them to deal with lines that snaked around the block and fears that food would run short. Originally the donation was provided to Alberta Food Banks, and the donation amount was $2.4 million. By the middle of June close to half of the donation grant was transferred to the Woof Buffalo Food Bank, and the money was very much needed. Arianna Johnson, WBFB executive director, explained that a majority of the money went towards extra staff and equipment needed to keep up with local demand. “We’ve never really needed a forklift but we’re currently unloading upwards of three semis a week. We bought a new forklift, we bought a couple pallet jacks, we bought things like milk crates and boxes and reusable grocery bags.”

Johnson expressed gratitude for the $1 million donation to the Wood Buffalo Food Bank, but described how the agency is still restricted in what can be provided. “Even with more money, we don’t have the capacity to do more than 150 hampers a day because we don’t have the space to be able to function. We had to put a cap on it so that we could do our daily order of perishables, because without a cap we really have no idea how much to order. We will be going back to that conversation with the Red Cross about long term needs, because we do know that five to ten years after a disaster, food banks are still impacted by that disaster.” Thanks to the donation the food bank has started offering more perishable items in their hampers.