Stuff-A-Bus food drive in Calgary aims to tackle food insecurity

Mayor Jyoti Gondek helped kick off the annual Stuff-A-Bus food drive Saturday, aiming to tackle food insecurity as Calgary Food Bank use jumped 200 per cent in the last five years.

In collaboration with Calgary Co-op and Calgary Transit, the campaign provides essential items to the food bank.

Over 250 volunteers help gather donations to fill buses parked at over a dozen Co-op locations across Calgary.

The mayor says anyone can make a donation, and any donation is greatly appreciated at this time. She says many Calgarians are dealing with food insecurity.

“So what I’m seeing and hearing in our city right now is that about a third of families are experiencing some sort of food insecurity. We’ve heard from a lot of parents that they are skipping meals to make sure that their kids are well fed,” Gondek said.

“This is a serious situation in the city.”

The mayor says access to the Calgary Food Bank increased by 26 per cent in 2024 and by 200 per cent in the last five years.

“So there’s a lot of people struggling, and we need to make sure people have good meals so you can help out. Please come and stuff with us,” Gondek said.

Calgary Food Bank CEO Melissa From says while there has been “unprecedented demand,” its warehouse shelves have been bare.

“We did our annual city-wide food drive a couple of months ago, and we are so grateful for the generosity of Calgarians, but I think indicative of how many people are struggling right now with the cost of living, that food drive actually came in quite a bit short of what it typically does and what we were expecting,” From said.

“So events like this and all of the other events that you’re going to see in the community in the next six weeks leading up to the holiday break are going to be so important to us, because we really need to make up that shortfall if we’re going to be able to feed people for the next 12 months well.”

She says the holidays are challenging for families, so the food bank is hoping more donations come in so it can support families in need.

The Mayor’s Christmas Food Drive starts on Nov. 27 and will be followed up by a friendly food bank donation competition called the Councillors Challenge. City councillors will compete for the most non-perishable food donations brought into the food bank.

The amount raised and donated is expected to be shared later Sunday. Last year, about 70,000 pounds of food was donated alongside $68,000.

More information on donating to the Food Bank and a wish list can be found here.

With files from Carlene Sorenson