Food rescue program helping those in need

By Rob Vogt
The Claresholm food rescue program is helping those in need, and it is looking for support to help even more people in the community.
Called Wild Rose FoodConnexx, the program is operated by Wildrose Community Connections, and was started in March of 2020 at 4209 – Third Street East, a building graciously provided at no charge.
“We rescue food from local businesses, grocery stores,” said Sarah Bruinsma, food security coordinator for Wildrose Community Connections.
Whatever they rescue is supplemented by food from the provincial food bank network to build hampers that are provided to the community on Monday and Friday of each week from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
“The service is completely free,” Bruinsma said.
Wild Rose FoodConnexx runs year round and clients can utilize it twice a month.
Food rescue is a program where food that is often past its best-before date is rescued.
Bruinsma noted there is a difference between the best-before and expiration dates, and they use a chart created by Canadian Food Inspection Agency to evaluate the food they rescue.
The food rescue program has no actual funding source, and food bank use is up.
“We are looking for community support,” Bruinsma said, adding that could be food donations, corporate support, personal financial donations or anything else.
She also noted the support of the local grocery store has been excellent.
People accessing food banks has increased by 32 per cent from March of 2022 to March of 2023.
“It’s even worse now,” Bruinsma said.
In fact, according to Food Banks Canada, use has increased 73 per cent from 2019 to 2023.
The Claresholm program rescued 25,439 pounds of food in 2023, and a total of 105,112 pounds since it started.
A total of 1,164 hampers were distributed in 2023, with 334 of those delivered right to the door of clients.
However, any delivery service is completely dependant on volunteers.
Anyone interested in more information or supporting Wild Rose FoodConnexx can phone 403-489-3663 or e-mail claresholmfoodrescue@gmail.com (no dashes or spaces).
Bruinsma said more and more people are relying on community services more than ever before.
“Food security is one of those things impacting people because the cost of living is so high,” she said.