For the first time in its 43-year history, the Calgary Food Bank opened a new location on Monday, in downtown Calgary.
The new location, in the Neoma building at 655 6th St. S.W., looks a lot like a normal grocery store, with the food on shelves and in coolers, allowing clients to browse through and choose the food they want.
The Calgary Food Bank’s new location in the city’s downtown offers clients a similar experience to shopping at a normal grocery store.
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“It really is like you’re selling food at a food store and I hope that’s how our clients feel when they come in,” Calgary Food Bank president Melissa From said. “We really want our clients to have that same experience here. I think this adds normalcy to the food insecurity experience for people.”
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It’s also located close to the C-Train line, so it will be much more accessible to many clients — especially those who live in downtown Calgary or the Beltline neighbourhood — compared with the original food bank location in the Burnsland Industrial Park.
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Clients will still need to pre-book an appointment and will make their food choices based on a points system.
“We receive about $45 million a year worth of reclaimed food, so we have different surges in our inventory,” From said. “So sometimes one vine of tomato is worth three points and sometimes, especially in the summer months when we’re getting a lot of donated produce, three vines of tomatoes might be worth three points.
“That just allows us to have that variability because our inventory will be a bit more dynamic than what a traditional grocery store would have.”
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From said the food bank currently serves about 1,000 households per day, with an average of three people per household, from its current location.
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She described the opening as “bittersweet,” being able to open a new location but also knowing there are so many people in Calgary who are having trouble feeding themselves and their families.
The Calgary Food Bank’s new downtown location is in the Neoma building at 655 6th St. S.W.
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On Monday, Statistics Canada released its latest inflation numbers and they show that in November, the price of groceries rose by 4.7 per cent compared with the same month a year earlier.
That’s the highest rate in more than two years.
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