A local food bank program with Wild Rose Community Connections needs your help.
They fear they won't be able to give out food hampers with their Food Connexx program, so they started a GoFundMe page.
Executive Director Marianne Dickson said the organization and volunteers will be heartbroken if they can't get the food out to those who need it.
"Everybody here, they're so passionate about the work, and the thought of not being able to deliver to our community is... it's heart-wrenching. We want to be here for folks, and we just want to do that by whatever means we can to continue to deliver our Food Connexx."
Dickson added that they serve a lot of people not just in High River but throughout the Foothills.
"On average every month we distribute 270 food packages out to the community. So, that's a lot of folks who are going to be missing out on food if we can't continue our commitment to fighting food insecurity."
They continue to apply for grants with the Alberta government, but Dickson said it's tougher and tougher every year to get the grants while demand increases.
"The grants are less available now, they're decreasing in the amount, the competition for these grants has gone up, and so, it's been more and more challenging every year with being able to apply for funding. So those are the kinds of things that are causing the most stress on us right now, is that we don't have the funds that will help us run the operational costs of running the Food Connexx program."
Local businessman and philanthropist Rick Green has given a very generous donation to keep the program going, offering up a $10,000 matching grant in the Feed the Need GoFundMe campaign. So, every dollar donated will be stretched to the equivalent of three dollars.
There has been a 44% increase in demands since last year and the need is still urgent.
The non-profit group only has 1 full-time and 1 part-time employee with the remainder of help coming from 58 volunteers.
