There won’t be any soup getting dished up at the Airdrie Food Bank’s annual Empty Bowls Festival this year.

The festival side of the annual event has been left to stew for another year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, with all the Food Bank's fundraisers and food drives also being put on the back burner they are still going ahead with the empty bowls side of things.

On September 16th and 23rd volunteers will be selling their infamous bowls at the Airdrie Farmers Market to help raise money for the Food Bank. They’ll also be holding an online auction for some extra special bowls being painted by local artists.

Christine Taylor said they’re also planning a food drive of sorts for the end of September.

“The day that we would have had empty bowls (September 26), we’re hoping to be at grocery stores in Airdrie collecting food as sort of a food drive to help us collect food for Thanksgiving,” she explained.

Taylor said one of their biggest concerns right now is what the need will look like in the community this coming holiday season.

“It’s going to be a tricky year. I don’t think we’ve seen the worst of those who need help,” she said. “We have noticed in the last month or so that the number of first-time users of our hamper program has increased. That means people who have never had to reach out to the Food Bank are now having to do so.”

The Food Bank said it has been receiving more monetary donations over the last several months which has been extremely helpful as it's been able to buy the items they need the most for food hampers. Taylor adds the value of a dollar can be stretched farther by the food bank due to their bulk purchasing power.

For more details on the upcoming festival, click HERE.

 

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