Calgary food outreach group supporting single mothers in need amid rising grocery prices

A Calgary outreach group is offering a helping hand to local single mothers in need as the cost of food hits staggering highs due to rising inflation.

Tracy Koudys is the owner of K&T Calgary Food Outreach and held a food giveaway event Saturday morning in her southeast community of Ogden.

Several dozen bags of produce, bread, non-perishable canned goods and other basic necessities were handed out within a single hour with some generous donations provided by Last Chance Produce and Humble Harvest.

“Some food items have tripled in price, they’re just killing people who simply can’t afford to eat,” said Koudys.

“It’s extremely difficult even for me and my husband who works long hours and we’re struggling to put food on our table so I opened this food outreach figuring if we’re struggling, then what about single moms and everyone else?”

Koudys hosts a community donation event seven days a week with details listed on her Facebook page.

Saturday’s event supported the Calgary Single Mother’s Society (CSMS), a local non-profit group aiming to provide food and shelter resources for single parents in need.

“All of our members are single moms and some of them come from abusive relationships,” said CSMS business manager, Marisa Flores.

Saturday’s event supported the Calgary Single Mother’s Society (CSMS), a local non-profit group aiming to provide food and shelter resources for single parents in need.

“We want to give back to those low-income earners, especially with the way inflation and wages are right now. It's not good and people can’t keep up.”

One of those single mothers attending Saturday’s event was Laura Brady who has been in and out of the hospital nearly 50 times since the COVID-19 pandemic.

She brought her two sons to volunteer to teach them the power of giving.

“Food prices have skyrocketed and I can't always go out and get the things I need for my kids, so having something like this and being able to get back to the community to help single moms is so important,” Brady said.

“It really teaches my kids a sense of kindness as well, I want them to see that there are people out there that don’t have everything and that they can give back."

Other single mothers like Rebecca Adams find comfort in these events knowing that she’s not the only one going through a financial battle.

“I definitely feel like I’m not alone,” she said.

“There’s a lot more support here in this community that’s needed and I know that I can reach out to people for help.”

FOOD BANK DEMAND UP 30 PER CENT

According to the Calgary Food Bank, demand for food in the city is up 30 per cent year-over-year.

“Right now we’re currently distributing up to 700 hampers per week,” said Calgary Food Bank communications coordinator, Betty Jo Kaiser.

“To put that into perspective, our busiest time of year is usually Christmas where we would normally distribute 500 weekly hampers so we’re still trying to clear up some of that backlog accumulated in the late winter and early spring.”

Kaiser added that the support of outreach groups in the city is very welcome to help keep up with the rising demand.

“The only way to find other ways to fight hunger is to work together, it takes an awful lot of people, individuals, organizations, businesses, to come together to help meet the need,” she said.

“And so we certainly appreciate and love all of the different organizations and there's a lot of small grassroots groups, we work with a great deal of them in some cases, we distribute bulk food, and they prepare foods and do outreach that way.

The food bank’s mobile hamper program also helps to get hampers into the hands of people that need it most as volunteer delivery drivers step up to help distribute resources.

With inflationary pressures continuing to build up however, local non-profit food distributors like Last Chance Produce say they’re happy to help.

Owner, Sherry Nolan notes that grassroots organizations like hers can help step in to fill the gaps for hungry Calgarians in need.

“What I noticed there for a while is that people would phone into the food bank and then I'd get the call or get the message that someone needs an emergency hamper,” said Nolan.

“If some people call the food bank and aren’t able to get access to food for multiple days, but people call them when they need food right away so these grassroots groups help pick up that in between to help feed those families.”