Okotoks Food Bank Needs School Lunch Supplies

As kids get ready to go back to school, some of them will need help with having a nutritious lunch made from the Okotoks Food Bank.

With shelves dangerously low at the food bank, the call is out once again to help fill them and help those in need.

Executive Director Shelia Hughes says back to school can be as financially hard on families as Christmas shopping.

"There's school supplies to buy, there's clothes to buy, there's snacks and food like that and lunches to put together, so it's very expensive for parents, so we do find that our numbers do go up at that time," Hughes says.

Recently the food bank received a 60 lb. food donation and had a five- ton truck set-up to take donations at the Okotoks Show N' Shine, but it's hard to maintain supplies on a weekly basis.

Hughes says the food bank is buying food within its budget, but would love to not have to bank on that method of filling shelves regularly.

"If we continue on at this rate we'll be in trouble," she says. "We will be spending a huge amount of our budget on food, we do that already. We spend a lot of it on food but it will be going over budget for sure."

The food bank is in need of canned soup, canned vegetables, fruit, pasta, but for their school supplies they'll need single-serving items like canned tuna and crackers, peanut butter crackers, juice, granola bars, trail mix.

Hughes anything like that list will also be helpful.

"Anything that is a protein; it's really important for kids to have protein," she says. "Can't learn if they're hungry, so we want to make sure they're covered with all those items. Granola bars are another one, dried fruit is wonderful and it's a great food source for the kids.

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