INNISFAIL – The town’s local food bank received a much needed helping hand last week.
Central Alberta Co-op responded to the need with not one but two donations on July 15.
The first donation was a cheque for $685 from Co-op’s Roger Bratrud, an agro/petro manager at the company’s Innisfail Agro office east of town.
Less than an hour later at Co-op’s Innisfail Farm and Home Centre, a second cheque of $865 was donated to Judy Cooper, co-coordinator of the Innisfail and District Food Bank. Cooper said it was not only appreciated but greatly needed as demand for service has grown in town.
“We are very grateful now that the government is not giving out excess money to people. We are finding it is getting a lot busier during the past month. We are very glad for this. It is very welcomed right now,” she said. “The need is a lot higher.”
Nancy Crawford, assistant centre manager at the Innisfail Farm and Home Centre, said the company decided to make a donation to a charity from its Grow Greener to Give! promotion.
“We sell pails of fertilizer and $5 from each pail goes toward the Innisfail food bank. That was our choice this year for a charity,” said Crawford. “I am hoping we will be doing this every year. This is the first time we have done it here.”
Joe Fletcher, the centre’s lumber manager, said the decision to choose the local food bank was made because of the hard work the agency does to support the town’s vulnerable.
“The food bank does so much for the community already and we gave back to help them out,” said Fletcher, who is a board member for the Red Deer Food Bank. “They are a very generous outfit here in town and it’s all charity, and they help out the needy people in town. We are a community-owned company and we just want to help out the people around us.”
