Tsuut'ina First Nation Food Bank fired up for the holidays

The Tsuut'inaFirst Nation Food Bank opened its doors to the community in July of last year.

In a trailer filled withfood, Crystal Starlight works with her staff to fill a long line of hampers to be distributed to people in need across the nation.

Starlight who is the manager of the food bank, says hundreds of nation members are currently using the program, a number that has steadily increased since it was started.

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"Last year people were still learning about the food bank, they weren'taware we had one, this year it really picked up," she said.

Starlight says that like much of Alberta, on the growing nationthere is an increasing demand from peoplelooking for help feeding their families, especially around the holidays.

The program has received numerous donations, including hundreds of backpacks that are expected to arrive next week.The bags will be filled with goodies foryouth and will be given out before Christmas.

"We have full lists every day this month, December is a busy month we are giving out hampers every day," Starlight said.

The program runs three-days-a-week, but during the holiday season they are openevery day. Starlight says the program gets its food through donations from other food banks across the province.

But she says there is also a big demand for volunteers to help run the operation, something Starlight says nation members have pulled together to provide.

"We opened it up the community first and the responses we got werejust incredible, we are full right until the twenty-first," she said.

FirefighterBobby Buffalo-Big Plumeis one of the volunteers working at the food bank in the lead up to the holidays.

Buffalo-Big Plume and his fellow firefighters are just one of the groups on the nation who have volunteered to help out, and are more than happy to do it.

"We just show up and they tell us what to do and we are firefighters, so that's basically what we do, we help out people.," he said.

Buffalo-Big Plume says that working at the food bank hits close to home because he knows many people on the nation and some struggle to make ends meet.

"Some of my family members use the food bank," he said.

The food bank expects to give out more than 300hampers before Christmas.

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