The Grocery Run: People to People Solutions

Edmonton’s Grocery Run program needs your help! 

While our approach is economical, we require financial support to operation.

Consider Adopt A Family.

Grocery Run provides weekly essential grocery hampers to refugees and immigrants who are experiencing chronic poverty in Edmonton. The hampers include a mixed bag of fresh produce and culturally relevant pantry staples, a loaf of bread, and, every other week, a dozen eggs. When available, we provide additional supplies, such as cereal, rice, lentils, or flour. Each week, a group of dedicated volunteers pack and deliver food hampers around our city. 

At the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, Grocery Run served 110 families. During the bulk of the pandemic and 2022, we serve 550 families, more than 3000 individuals per week. And now in 2023, approximately 113 families (376 individuals) have been served every week.

Grocery Run is in a time of transition, and our funding is in jeopardy. To help ensure that we can keep this program going for another year, we are launching a GoFundMe campaign to raise $150,000 to sustain the program for another year. This may sound like a big number, but we all know that many hands make light work. 

"[Because of the Grocery Run] we are able to sleep without going hungry. I’m incredibly happy, my family goes to bed with our stomachs full." ~ Community Member from Eritrean/Ethiopian Community

Our $150,000 goal breaks down to supporting 600 families for one year. Grocery Run uses a combination of food rescue and local food procurement. 50% of hampers are made up of food donations made possible by partnerships with the Edmonton Food Bank and Leftovers Edmonton Foundation. While Grocery Run received food donation from our partners, we still required financials resource to purchase food each week to provide fresh produce to the family. And not to mention all the other overhead costs to sustain the program.

As a result of the affordability crisis since the pandemic and its detrimental social and economic impacts, the Multicultural Family Resource Society (MFRS) and the Multicultural Health Brokers Cooperative (MCHB) have partnered with other organizations across Edmonton to address the deepening of poverty and food insecurity among newcomer families. Since 2005, MFRS has worked alongside its sister organization, the MCHB, to build an intercultural community of support. We have a shared fundamental mandate to support newcomer populations in attaining social and economic inclusion and wellbeing. We embrace a collaborative practice rooted in cultural brokering aimed at an inclusive intercultural Edmonton. With a desire not to duplicate efforts, and recognizing that newcomer families have unique needs, we are engaging in a collaborative, coordinated effort with other newcomer serving agencies, Edmonton’s Food Bank, Leftovers Edmonton and local businesses to meet the urgent food needs of as many families as possible during this time through MCHB's Grocery Run.

Learn more about Grocery Run, who we serve and how our program works, on the MCHB website . 

Grocery Run Impacts

- Supporting 113 families/376 individuals each week in 2023

- 45% of individuals supported by the Grocery Run are children and youths (aged 1 - 18)

-4% of individuals supported by the Grocery Run are infants (< 1 yrs old)

- 14% of individuals supported by the Grocery Run are seniors 

- 62% of families use more than half of their income to pay for housing

Help us promote this important and high impact work.

Please encourage donations to the Grocery Run.

A single hamper $25

A family for a month $100

A family for a year $1200

Hear from our community

“During the lockdown and COVID 19 crisis, many people lost their jobs causing a lot of stress and bankruptcy in the community. People were not able to feed their families, pay their bills or rent. Thankfully, the Grocery Run program of the Multicultural Health Brokers was able to support the families at this time. Currently, I have six families accessing the program on a weekly basis. The Grocery Run program provides long-term nutritional needs with diverse approaches to meet the unique needs of our community. The quantity of food and the emphasis on nutrition has helped the beneficiaries and they look forward to it every week.”  

~ A MCHB Cultural Broker who supports Edmonton families from Sierra Leone 

I have met some truly lovely people during my time volunteering with Grocery Run. Over Christmas, one of my clients came out to meet me with a holiday card and a tray of nuts. In early April, another gave me a bottle of hand sanitizer and a bag of mask filters, reminding me to be safe as COVID numbers rise. It is remarkable that despite experiencing poverty and the daily anxieties and indignities that poverty brings, the people I see each week are generous, kind, and gracious. Without fail, I am met with gratitude, warm thank-yous (in three different languages!), and am always reminded to drive carefully.

~ Grocery Run volunteer

Grocery Run’s mission pulls at my heartstrings because my parents and I were one of these refugee families who received help from caring people like you. This world is filled with hope and is noticeably brighter because of this work. 

~ Grocery Run donor

“I want to thank-you so very much for the food programs, we’re able to sleep without going hungry. I’m incredibly happy, my family goes to bed with our stomachs full. Thank-you.”

~Community Member from Eritrean/Ethiopian Community

“It’s been a year since we last saw each other. You think about us day and night. Every-time we thank-you for thinking of us. We do not only pray for the food but we also pray to see you, we are happy to reconnect with you [Brokers] when you deliver us food. You work hard to make sure no one struggles. For a full year you have continued to provide us food during this difficult time, all of you that have supported us for the past year, we hope God gives you grace. And for those that have not received food, we hope god offers them relief. 

~Community Member from Eritrean/Ethiopian Community