Mustard Seed and the Red Deer Food Bank join forces to help those in need

After much collaboration and a significant donation, The Mustard Seed is now a satellite location for the Red Deer Food Bank.

The location provides a more centralized pickup location for people needing to utilize the food bank, and Byron Bradley, Managing Director for Central Alberta for the Mustard Seed, said accessibility is key.

“People that are affected by poverty and homelessness, especially people with mobility issues, getting to the north can be really tough. It takes a lot more resources,” said Bradley.

He added that the first three clients who came through doors on Thursday were within walking distance.

“That just shows how important this is to be a little more centralized for the food bank, so we are really happy to be partnering with them.”

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Last fall an anonymous family made a significant donation to The Mustard Seed, which Bradley said allowed them to become a satellite location for the food bank.

Food bank clients will be able to pick up from The Mustard Seed on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. People will still need to phone the main line for the food bank in order to do the intake process.

“Another benefit of this is that people that are going to get the food hamper, we [The Mustard Seed] have a wellness advocate on staff. She helps them get their resumes updated, helps them with affordable housing, helps them with one on one supports, maybe a treatment centre, maybe reconnect to family. So she will be sitting close by here to let people know what wellness advocacy is all about and people will be able to access her services,” said Bradley.

Adding the food bank to the Mustard Seed location is a huge benefit for the community according to both Bradley and Fred Scaife, Executive Director of the Red Deer Food Bank.

Bradley said The Mustard Seed simply provided the space for the satellite location with some new coolers and shelving and having the room ready to go.

“A busy day for [The Food Bank] is about 60 people, so maybe if 20-30 of those people come down here on Tuesdays and Thursdays that would be helping a lot of people. If we are able to help one person a day we are happy,” said Bradley.

Scaife said one of the biggest things the public needs to know is that the Red Deer Food Bank is accessible to those who need it, and that they’re there to help.

“We want people to understand that we are going to take care of them. People come in sometimes to the food bank and we can just about tell when it’s a new person because they’ll come in, they’ll have a bag stuffing everything they possibly can until the bag is just about so they can’t carry it,” said Scaife.

He added the food bank works very hard to assure their clients that they aren’t going anywhere.

“We were here yesterday, we’re here today and we will be back tomorrow. We’ve been here for 35 odd years now, we’re going to be around for a while.”

Bradley said the partnership with the Food Bank was a consideration for a long time, as both the Edmonton and Calgary Mustard Seed locations share partnerships with their respective food banks. The anonymous donation moved things along to allow for the opening of the satellite location in Red Deer.

“We can only do the work we do with the generous support from the community. So we want to say thank you to the anonymous family that stepped up to care for the most vulnerable in this community.”