Provincial CFEP grant sees $383,100 allocated for local food bank

By John Watson Local Journalism initiative Reporter

The government of Alberta has invested over $383,000 to support the Wheatland County Food Bank through the Community Facility Enhancement Program (CFEP).

The program itself is intended to help foster healthy communities across Alberta by working in partnership with non-profit organizations. 

CFEP provides matching funding to aid non-profits in leveraging their other sources of funding to acquire, build, update and maintain public use facilities. In this particular use case, the funding was intended to help the food bank purchase a new facility. 

By the time the funding was approved and distributed, the food bank had already relocated into its new, current warehouse, and so the funding will be used to support the use of the facility instead.

Chestermere-Strathmore MLA Leela Aheer said she was proud that the government was signaling their support for the organization, as it is a critical part of the local community. 

“This project will help many individuals within our communities and help to foster a stronger sense of community and togetherness,” said Aheer.

“When we’re talking about our facilities that are around our area, it’s one thing to build them, it’s a whole other ball game to maintain those things.”

CFEP supports two classifications of funding streams. Small Stream funding is matched up to $125,000 and an applicant organization may be considered for up to $10,000 in non-matching funding. 

A Large Stream fund supports a successful applicant between $125,000 and $1 million. An organization may only apply for one grant stream per year.

“Municipalities and for-profit organizations cannot apply for these funds. These are dedicated to nonprofits and First Nations and Metis settlement organizations,” said Aheer.

“As we come out of this now, we’re going to be seeing a lot of need in the communities for these services to keep people’s heads above water until they can get back into the workforce.”

She added, regarding the food bank in particular, it is important to break down any potential stigma associated with making use of the facility, particularly if anyone needs help, as well as highlighted the importance of supporting the organization.

“Everybody is going to need help at some point, it’s just the way that it is, so this expansion is going to help them be able to really broaden their ability to hold food, to be able to maintain the services that they’ve been providing, to potentially put more staff into place,” said Aheer.

The exact amount allocated to the Wheatland County Food Bank from the CFEP grant was $383,100.