Food bank works to offset rising energy costs

At this time of year, people are starting to see a jump in the cost of energy on their bills.

At the Wheatland County Food Bank, they’ve seen a bit of an increase as well, but they are managing to keep the lights on and the power running.

Lynette Aschenbrenner, Executive Director of the Wheatland County Food Bank speaks of the difference it’s made now that the food bank has moved into a new location.

“When we moved into our building we put LED lights in and it seems like our energy bills haven't increased that much. In our old building we were getting billed for two services and now we're only getting billed for one, so it’s made a difference.” Their bills have gone up a little, but not a huge increase.

When asked if energy costs sometimes cut into their budget for food she said, “Absolutely.”

“We need to have the lights on and the heat on to store the food. We always have to make sure we have that budget there for it. We would never let it affect us being able to buy food, but yes it definitely is part of the budget,” she said.

Operating the local food bank is a year-round job. Right now organizers are searching for volunteer drivers.

“You need a clean drivers abstract and need to be able to lift at least 50 lbs and our drivers work for an entire week every five weeks,” she said.

At the moment they are experiencing a high volume of usage,

“It's really busy and we just want to remind people that on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings from 9 to 10:30 a.m. we do bread and extras. There's dairy, there's vegetables, there's always extra stuff that we can give away, and that's separate from our hamper program,” said Aschenbrenner. “You don't need to book an appointment or qualify for that. You can just come to the food bank on those days.”