Officials with the Interfaith Foodbank are asking the public to lend a hand as their supply of bottled water has rapidly disappeared off the shelves.
Executive Director Danielle McIntyre says despite being in the midst of a small reprieve from the recent extreme heatwave, they’re hoping to get the numbers back up to an acceptable level. She adds with the higher than average temperatures set to return next week, it’s vital they are able to meet the need of those who need it most.
“We’ve been in the middle of a heatwave for a bit here and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be letting up anytime soon, but we’ve depleted our existing stock of water and will be making more purchases, but we’d be very very grateful if the community could help us out in the meantime,” she says.
“The donations are not keeping up with demand, so we are having to spend a lot of money purchasing water that isn’t coming in by donation, so we are really hoping the community could step up and help us out.”
McIntyre says while they’re likely to receive larger donations from other organizations across the Lethbridge region, smaller scale donations will allow them to keep handing supplies out to those in need in the shorter term.
“An additional case or two would be lovely, we also see several groups collecting on our behalf with pallets of water. We will go through thousands of bottles of water during the summer time,” she says.
“The weather always dictates what donations we receive as well as the need out there in the community, it will switch over once the weather turns to things like warm clothing, but for the time being, it’s water that is the most needed.”
