Edmonton’s Food Bank gets $10K donation from non-profit that helps Ukrainian newcomers

Ukrainian newcomers to Edmonton are getting more help this holiday season thanks to a donation from one from charity to another.

Ukrainian Canadian Social Services (UCSS) handed over a $10,000 cheque to Edmonton’s Food Bank (EFB) Tuesday morning.

The funds will help Ukrainians with food support after a difficult year during which they fled their home country. It will also help the Edmonton community in general.

“A lot of Ukrainians are coming with just backpacks and suitcases, which basically is nothing as far as starting a new life in a new country,” said John Shalewa, the president of UCSS.

“This will really help the people in need, as far as food goes. We know that Ukrainian nationals have been benefiting from Edmonton’s Food Bank, and we hope this will go a long ways to help out even other individuals in the community.”

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Marjorie Bencz, the executive director at EFB, says the group feels “privileged.”

“Not only because of the monetary support – $10,000 is a lot of money for us – at the same time we appreciate the collaborative initiative of working together to provide really quality services to people in need,” said Bencz.

Edmonton’s Food Bank has been supporting Ukrainian newcomers not only with food security, but with English lessons and employment preparation.

“We have a program called ‘Beyond Food’ which helps people with resume writing, job searches, that sort of thing,” said Bencz. “And in the spring, we saw more Ukrainians coming to that program, looking for opportunities to be employed, or improve their quality of life while living here in Edmonton.

“And our team has been working with them, helping them secure jobs, and things like that. We have four employees that are from Ukraine right now.”

Ukrainian newcomer hired by food bank

Iuliia Bashtanova and her family were using the food bank’s hamper program when they first moved to Edmonton in April because of the war.

“The idea for hampers to help people from Ukraine is amazing, because when people arrive in Canada they don’t know anybody and it’s so hard for them, and this support is so important for them,” said Bashtanova.

Bashtanova was also part of the “Beyond Food” program. She learned how to write a resume and how to do job interviews. And one month after she began volunteering at the food bank, they hired her. She’s been working there for seven months now.

“I’m working, my husband is working, my oldest son is working,” she said.

“We decided that we don’t need the hamper, because a lot of people who don’t work need the hamper more than me.”

Food bank overwhelmed by demand

Edmonton’s Food Bank is overwhelmed, saying the number of people they are serving through their hamper program is about double what they were serving two years ago.

“People thought as we got on this side of the pandemic and its severity, we would see less people using our services,” said Bencz. “But we’re finding quite the opposite because of course there is the inflation, and when you are a low-income individual or family you don’t have the discretionary cushion to make ends meet. So that is one of the driving factors why we are seeing more people turning to us for our hamper programs.

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“We’re hearing things like ‘we can’t afford the food, our income isn’t changing but our expenses are increasing, our housing has gone up.’”

Shalewa says a lot of Ukrainians are still coming to Canada. He says 710 Ukrainian families have gone through the Edmonton office since the war broke out.

UCSS – which helps Ukrainian newcomers with job searching, school registration and finding rental residents – says it assists on average 60 families a week.