Photo submitted/Red Deer Food Bank.
If passed, Budget 2025 would allocate $5 million to support food banks across the province.
The funding is aimed at decreasing food insecurity and helping put nutritious food on the tables of Albertans.
“In the 2024 fiscal year, the food bank distributed $4.5 million worth of food to the community,” said Mitch Thomson, Red Deer Food Bank Executive Director.
Adding, “The province has stepped forward and is making $5 million available to food security organizations across the province and we appreciate them doing that.”
Since 2020, more than $31 million has been invested to support food bank programs and services.
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Last year, the provincial government invested in a partnership with Food Banks Alberta to strengthen existing programs and ensure the province’s network of food banks can respond to the needs of Albertans.
The partnership ensured that food banks could provide culturally appropriate food, education to families and children on how to shop for, prepare, and enjoy healthy food, established a program to support food banks during emergency situations, and assisted food banks with covering core operating costs.
Thomson explained that the Red Deer Food Bank has benefited from provincial funding in recent years.
“These funds are incredibly helpful because they allow us to strategically purchase items that we don't have or we need from time to time,” he said. “That cash is incredibly helpful and enables us to feed the 30,563 people that we fed emergency food to last year, and the 45,000 others who received supplemental food.”
Between 2022 and 2023, the Red Deer Food Bank received about $150,000 from the provincial government that was used to purchase milk, eggs, margarine, produce, and meat.
“We've been fortunate in these recent years,” Thomson said. “With all of the turmoil in the world and what economists are saying, the risk to our region based on tariffs and things that have been announced, this funding will be very helpful and much needed.”
In addition to the $5 million in funding dedicated to food security, Budget 2025 would provide $20 million for Alberta’s school nutrition program.
With the funding, school jurisdictions across the province provide about 58,000 students with a daily nutritious meal.
Another $105 million would be allocated for the Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) program, supporting local preventative services and programming across the province in partnership with local municipalities and Metis Settlements.
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