WID employees raise large foodbank donation

The Western Irrigation District (WID) made a donation of $1500 to the Wheatland County Food Bank.

WID's Office Administrator Tara Busslinger explained this donation is particularly special to the WID since it was raised solely through the employees and community.  Busslinger explained they raised money through WID's General Manager Sean Mascaluk's wife, who donated her photography for an auction to raise money for the food bank. On top of the money earned through the auction, they also received food donations, cash donations, and earned extra cash from other places as well.

"We also had random things when we sold our building. When we got rid of our old building we had stuff in the shop and the money raised from that sale, went in there. Just random things that we've done," Busslinger said.

Executive director of the food bank Lynette Aschenbrenner is grateful for the donation and said she's particularly happy to see how the WID employees and community rallied to raise this money for the food bank.

"It's neat to see that it's the staff that did it. Of course, we appreciate all of our corporate donations as well, but it's nice when it comes directly from the community, and this is a very caring and generous community," Aschenbrenner said.

Large donations like this are very important for the food bank, which needs community support to continue helping those who may need the support.

"The food bank is not government funded so we rely solely on grants and donations from our community to purchase food, keep our doors open, and be able to help those who need us. So stuff like this is very important to us."

Alberta is seeing the highest foodbank usage in the country, meaning donations like this are very much needed. While some may think it's even more important because there could be higher usage during Christmas compared to other times, Aschenbrenner explained that isn't necessarily the case.

"The demand is going up no matter what, and it's still going to be up after Christmas. We're here for the people in need 365 days a year, so not just at Christmas but after Christmas too. And sometimes that is even a busier time for us, when people's bills come in and winter bills start coming in, people just find themselves a little bit short."

To connect with the Wheatland County Food Bank regarding donations or to volunteer visit wheatlandfoodbank.ca.

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