IFB grateful for support at Christmas and into new year

By Lethbridge Herald on January 6, 2026.

Photo Courtesy of interfaith food bank Volunteer Alexandre Ferreira showcases one of the hundreds of food hampers that were distributed during the month of December at the Interfaith Food Bank.

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

Lethbridge Herald

Christmas at the Interfaith Food Bank was busy as they were expecting it. But executive director Danielle McIntyre said they are grateful to meet their campaign goal for Christmas. 

McIntyre said they always recruit most of their support at the end of the year to tide them into the new year, and they were very happy about not only being able to support over 1000 households with their food hampers in December, but also about the support that will help them for the first couple months of the new year. 

“We projected to serve 1000 hampers and we did 1,014 hampers. We were right on part for interfaith as far as numbers were, but one thing we found with Christmas Hope is that the number of hampers went up this year,” said McIntyre. 

She said collectively there was 120 extra households locally this year compared to the previous year. 

“We are seeing that is a harder struggle for single adults who live alone, and it’s one of the reasons why we’re really grateful to have the Golden Giving Tree join us this year as a Christmas Hope partner,” said McIntyre. “Because so many seniors often struggle at this time of year, not just with food needs, but with isolation that feels so much worse at Christmas time.” 

McIntyre said the number of hampers distributed is equivalent to the number of households, whether that be a single individual or a house full of people. 

“At Interfaith Food Bank 1,603 adults and 1,167 children received food. Our campaign goal was $525,000 and we were very pleased to have met that,” said McIntyre. 

She said their numbers are not final, as there is money still coming in and they are able to include anything postmarked up to Dec. 31 in their 2025 numbers. 

“We were able to meet our goal, which was a huge release because we were unsure if that goal was going to be too lofty as the demand just continues to rise,” said McIntyre. 

She said physical donations of food items went down slightly, but monetary donations increased, which is best for them as they can purchase exactly what they need. 

McIntyre added that Christmas was made easier at the food bank because of the many volunteers that helped them. 

“We had over 300 volunteers give almost 3,000 hours of service, and that really speaks to the volume of work that is involved in making sure those donations are getting sorted, checked, packed up and distributed to local families,” said McIntyre.