'It's a blessing': Fort Chipewyan to receive food hamper deliveries

Food hampers were delivered to theremote northern Alberta community of Fort Chipewyan for the first time on Saturday.

The Wood Buffalo Food Bank partnered with fellow local charity King's Kids Promotions to begin offering the service.

The food bank gives hampers to people in all the other communities in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, but hasn't been able to get to Fort Chipewyan until now.

They'll be taking the ice road during the winter, and in the summer they'll fly the hampers up, said Dan Edwards, executive director of the Wood Buffalo Food Bank.

"It's been something on our radar for a long time," Edwards said.

• Rocketing food prices at northern hamlet's only store annoy residents
• Northern Alberta hamlet happy with first taste of lower-priced groceries

Edwards said the food bank has given food hampers to Fort Chipewyan residents before, but folks either had to travel to Fort McMurray to do pick-up themselves, orhad to pay for the hampersto be freighted to the community.

The hampers are packaged to provide food for a family for about one month.

King's Kids Promotions approached the food bank with the idea to strike up a partnership and get hampers up north. They received a $93,000 grant, which will cover the pilot project's first year of operations.

Edwards said the partnership meant they could get the project up and running right away.

"The community reaction has been overwhelming," he said.

In one week, 27 families reached out to Edwards to get hampers.

One of those people was Alice Rigney.

An elder, she is a pensioner and has a grandson, great-grandson, and granddaughter living in her home.

"For the food bank to come to our community over the winter road, it's a blessing," said Rigney. "And I know that I'm going to appreciate it very much."

She said there are fewer people out hunting and fishing than in the past, changing the way community members eat.

"Most of the families have changed their diets from living off the land to processed foods. And so the rise of diabetes has gone up," Rigneysaid. "It's really important that we are starting to teach our young to eat properly."

Having the food bank deliver hamperswill provide families with the ingredients they need to cook more nutritious food, she said.

The cost of living in Fort Chipewyan is high, especially in the winter when people are paying for extra fuel to heat their homes.

"This food bank is going to offset a lot of those [costs]," Rigney said.

Rick Kirschner, executive director of King's Kids Promotions, planned todrivethe van and trailer full of hampersto Fort Chipewyan on Saturday.

He's worked on the initiativefor about eight months.

Kirschner was part of the team assembling the hampersFriday, and he said it was meaningful to work with young volunteers who helped put them together.

"I had a tear when I was talking to these kids about participating and helping build their community," he said.

The hampers will be handed out once a month from the Athabasca Delta Community School.