November 2024 Update
-Hinton and area has a population of about 11,000 people, of which we estimate 800-1000 require support from our food bank at least once per year. Our clients live in poverty, many are the working poor, many are aboriginal, many have disabilities preventing them from working, and many are single parent families.
-We serve our clients in person from our leased building at 124 Market St. on Tuesday evening. In 2023, we provided 4615 food hampers which served 10174 individual people over 52 weeks. Nearing the end of 2024, we are seeing an average of 100-110 families/week, representing approx 260 people. Clients can access standard food hampers as often as once per week, on Tuesday evenings. In addition to food hampers, Hinton Food Bank provides various toiletries, fresh produce recovered from grocery stores, fresh food vouchers, public transit passes and social agency referral information to our clients.
-With a motto of “Community helping Community”, Hinton Food Bank is truly blessed to receive amazing support from individuals, businesses and social agencies to enable us to operate successfully. We are blessed to have so many dedicated volunteers, including casual volunteers, ongoing position volunteers and board members who contribute their talents and time. We estimate volunteers contribute over 4000 hours of time each year. (2 full-time positions!)
-As a non-profit enterprise, we spend over $100,000 in our operation to better the lives of families in need. Our two largest costs are food and building rent/operation. -Most food we provide is bought locally, donated by Hinton residents, or provided by the Food Banks Alberta provincial food-share network. Beyond our cash spending, we receive donations of food, “in kind” labour services and volunteer time contributed annually which we estimate equals $250,000. –
-A big thank you to all the volunteers, donors, businesses and agencies who support the Hinton FoodBank so we can help those less fortunate in our community to put food on their family’s table.