Thanks to the generous donations of food from the Lethbridge community and Sponsor Energy, a food drive put on by 98.1 The Ranch last week helped gather up food and $20,000 for the Lethbridge Food Bank. The food donations will be split between the Lethbridge Food Bank and the Interfaith Food Bank.
“We were delighted to find out Sponsor Energy wanted to come in and help support that a little bit better and brought in tons of ramen noodles to help support the program,” says Mac Nichol, executive director of the food bank. There were at least 981 packages of ramen noodles donated.
Along with a previous $16,000 donation to the food bank, Nichol adds the energy company has helped with almost $40,000 in donations. “To help support our community and getting food into people’s hands.”
According to Nichol, the majority of the funds will go directly to food purchasing. “We’ve seen a real rise in clients over the past two years or so. At this point, we’re serving just over 700 households a month. This will go directly to protein purchasing through ground beef mostly.”
Lately, Nichol notes, the food bank has needed to purchase cereal, as well as canned fruit. “Most of those purchases will be taken up on this cheque directly within the next few months.”
Carolyn Martin, CEO of Sponsor Energy, says since its inception the company has a social entrepreneurship business model, “where with every sign-up we get, we donate $50 to the charity of the customer’s choice. We’ve got 50 charities from across Alberta.”
“We gather up all the money and twice a year head out to the various charities,” adds Martin.