It was a double date Tuesday morning for the Cochrane Activettes Food Bank, who welcomed another $4,500 in donations to add to its 2016 Share Your Christmas campaign.
The annual campaign has $145,000 to-date surpassing last year’s donations of $130,000. Donations appear to be coming from more places, although in smaller amounts.
There were 209 Christmas hampers delivered last Saturday, a 10 per cent increase from the year before.
“People are still donating,” said Helen Parnell, president of the Activettes, adding that the food bank volunteers are very grateful to the community for their generosity in the face of a troubling economy.
Yoga nidra instructor, Duane Lauritsen, delivered $1,000 to the campaign; nidra is a meditative style of yoga practice that is referred to as “yogic sleep or state of consciousness between waking and sleeping.”
The Cochranite donates proceeds from all his yoga classes each year to the food bank in an effort to give back to the community he has been a part of for 13 years.
Last year he donated $1,700.
“That’s really indicative of what’s happening in the economy,” said Lauritsen, adding his own research shows that Alberta food bank reliance has seen a nearly 60 per cent increase since 2014, the majority of whom are employed persons who just can’t make ends meet.
Lauritsen is in talks with a couple of yoga studios in town to continue this tradition, regarding the donation of space that would enable him to continue donating proceeds to the food bank in future years.
Bob Thomas and Orval Grenon from the Bearspaw Lions Club also arrived at the sorting centre to make their annual donation – which was also less than previous years.
The $3,500 donation for the 2016 campaign trails the 2015 donation of $4,000 and the 2014 donation of $5,000.
“Things are getting tough all over the place,” said Grenon.
