Putting food on the table
ATB team members showed up to help our neighbours with Edmonton’s Food Bank.
By ATB Financial 20 January 2025 2 min read
Edmonton’s Food Bank is guided by a simple mantra: “Relieving Hunger Today. Preventing Hunger Tomorrow.” Like all meaningful visions, it is simply stated but difficult to execute. The first of its kind in Canada, Edmonton’s Food Bank serves as a hub for collating donations and distributing food to over 300 partners throughout the city.
In 2024, over 40,000 people used Edmonton’s Food Bank each month—that’s up from 34,800 people a month in 2023, all experiencing food insecurity. Food insecurity is more than hungry bellies: the emotional and mental stress of not knowing how to feed your family affects everything, including job security and relationships.
There has been an unprecedented demand for meals and support across Edmonton, and it takes multiple food drives across the city to meet that demand. Edmonton’s Food Bank Fall Food Drive, the largest food drive in Edmonton, occurred at the end of September to prepare for the Thanksgiving and holiday seasons. In 2024, demand promised to be higher than ever, and the Food Bank was looking for help organizing the increased donations.
ATB has this in the bag
ATB is a longtime supporter of Edmonton’s Food Bank. Ahead of the 2024 Fall Food Drive, ATB made a cash donation of $35,000 that allowed the Food Bank to purchase thousands of paper bags. Donated food is collected in these ATB-branded bags and brought to the Food Bank warehouse to be sorted. The sorted food is placed in food hampers—boxes of food categorized based on dietary requirements—and distributed to Edmontonians in need. These paper bags are the easiest way to contribute to the food drive. Other food banks that don’t collect food in supplied bags have reported a decrease in donations.
An ATB team member volunteering at Edmonton's Food Bank.
Powering possibility through community service
Edmonton’s Food Bank Fall Food Drive was an enormous success—over $900,000 worth of food was collected in only two weeks. But all that generosity creates a problem: who sorts all that food? The Food Bank strives to keep its overhead low and relies on community volunteers to help. Thirty-six ATB team members from across the organization mobilized to help organize this food into the food hampers. It was a joyous day in the Food Bank warehouse—laughs were had, selfies were snapped and hampers were filled.
All that food was distributed before the Thanksgiving weekend, giving families across Edmonton healthy meals to share with their loved ones, thanks to Edmonton’s Food Bank and ATB.