Wetaskiwin’s Salvation Army Food Bank is expecting a surge of people in need of their services in the next coming weeks.
With so many layoffs in different sectors, the Wetaskiwin Salvation Army suspects that the need for their Food Bank will start to rise.
While the number of visitors did not rise immediately, the Food Bank suspects this is because individuals who have been laid off still have the food they needed at the time of their layoff.
However, in the next coming weeks with no paycheck, and Government subsidy payments likely to take longer than expected to come in due to high demand volume, the Food Bank believes they will see a fairly large influx of people needing to use their services.
“We anticipate it to be much higher in the near future,” says Wetaskiwin Salvation Army community ministry worker Greg Silver.
The Wetaskiwin Salvation Army Food Bank is still operating during its regular hours, Monday through Thursday 9a.m-11:25 a.m.
Neighbours Outreach Wetaskiwin’s Shaila Johnson says “we are not getting the donations we used to.” Johnson speculates that the drop in donations is a combination between people practicing social distancing and staying home as well as holding onto food items incase of extended isolation periods.
Neighbours Outreach Wetaskiwin’s soup kitchen numbers have also declined for reasons that Johnson believes are similar to the food donation drop, in addition to their dining area being closed.
