KPCL Dirt Movers announced a substantial donation last week, with $250,000 going to the Saskatoon Food Bank &Learning Centre. (SFBLC)
The money will go towards the SFBLC's new infrastructure, which is being worked on with a donation campaign.
KPCL Dirt Movers President Kelly Panteluk talks about why they wanted to help out the food bank.
"We keep reading stories of food security are getting worse and worse for families across the country and you know, we can't continue on that trail cause it's just unsustainable. We're talking one of three families with problems with food security we don't want to see that. So hopefully some of the aspects other than just other being a food bank with this new infrastructure that they need as the old one is pretty old and pretty tiny for the demand that's upon it right now. Maybe this can help during some of those quarters to get some people able to take care of themselves without needing to count on the food bank."
Mary Panteluk, who works with KPCL, says that a lot of people depend on those food banks.
"It's a really high number of children that rely on the services through their families as well too. It's like Kelly was saying, just allowing that cycle to stop in earlier ages and kind of create sustainability as they move forward in life as well. So it's food security, it's the education. They also have some programs for career development and outreach as well. Just kind of full-circle support to families that need that at that time."
KPCL has also worked to help out a few other charities with Mary talking about their recent work.
"We kind of kickstarted some fundraising efforts across the industry that we work with and in 2020 with the Saskatchewan Food Bank. So that's a network of food banks across the province and that kind of overall initiative helped raise about $200,000 just to simply durable operations at that time during COVID. We've since given probably another $100,000 to the Saskatchewan Food Bank networks over the last few years as well."
Kelly Panteluk hopes to see more support for community organizations in the future.
"We would encourage other people and businesses that can find room within their budget to help support the people that are in need and the families that are in need to get through some things until they can become self-sufficient, better take care of themselves, and hopefully this tide turns sooner rather than later.