Recently, the team at HACK&Co volunteered at our local Edmonton Food Bank to give a piece of what we get from our community back. It was one of those experiences that makes you realize what really matters in life, and how fortunate we all are to have what we have.

It was really easy to take part. All it took was to register and show up! A quick 20 minute orientation onsite at the warehouse and then we were immediately helping families in need get their next meals.

Our Experience 

As the day went on, our team managed to pack up around 50 boxes that went out to families in need, something that was really important for the staff there. Edmonton Food Bank helps more than 22,000 families every month, and as much as 20% of them are children. There are periods when they don’t even have volunteers to help them, so all the families that depend on these food boxes are left at risk of having their food arriving late, the food they rely on desperately.

What changed our whole view of volunteering were the labels on the side of every box that had the structure of the family written on them. Some of them had 2 adults and one child, but some of them had one adult and 4 children, which really showed us the importance of volunteering and providing these families with the basic groceries to get them through the day, week, or month. These labels really changed our food selection process. We wanted to be able to provide the families with multiple children with a lot of healthy food options, some snacks for the children and put as much food as we can to make them all happy and satisfied.

Our "Take-away"

What we as a team realized while volunteering at the Edmonton Food Bank was that there are so many people struggling every day, and helping them is as simple as one registration. It takes only a few hours of your day to make someone’s week, or month happier. And you can help in various ways, not only with packing. Whether it’s with sorting food, packing hampers, packing and repacking food in food boxes, cleaning, driving or delivering. Anything is welcome at the warehouse, so if you want to help, the options are there for you, all you need to do is apply.

---

How You Can Help

We return to Edmontons Food Bank every few months, and we want to invite you to join us then. Or choose to go another day. Any help at any time is welcomed. If you want to find out about the individual or group volunteer opportunities in Edmonton Food Bank, or how to help with food or other services, you can go on the following link: 

---