Alberta’s food insecurity crisis is growing. Nearly 2 in 5 kids – about 400,000 children – are experiencing some degree of food insecurity, the highest rate of all 10 provinces. It’s clear that we can and must get beyond the traditional food bank model to fulfill the needs of families who simply don’t have enough income to put healthy food on the table, every meal, every day.
Our grocery gift card approach provides access to food while fulfilling families’ broader needs for financial relief, stability, dignity, and choice in the meals they share.
A new mother receives immediate support in a time of crisis
Every time we hear from our frontline partners, like Calgary Housing, we’re reminded of the impact our donors are making:
Susanna Shenfield, a housing support specialist at Calgary Housing (CH), was wrapping up a long workday when she received a call from a mother in crisis.
Her newborn baby had been repeatedly hospitalized. She had used her last money paying for taxis to the hospital. She was in desperate need of essentials for the baby, and food and medication for her other children.
“There was no way we could scramble to find her support through other community partners in a timely manner,” Susanna explained. “Many organizations don’t respond quickly. Most community agencies need certain client information before they can do a referral for food. Some food programs need a few days or even weeks before they can respond to a referral. It can be an exhausting exercise.”
Instead, Susanna offered immediate support in a time of crisis through our grocery gift card program. “I was able to help her within 20 minutes. It was such a relief for both of us. And she could even send a family member or friend to pick up what she needed while she stayed with the other children.”
Susanna Shenfield, Housing Support Specialist, Calgary Housing
This story is not unique. Nearly 1 in 3 people in Alberta are experiencing some degree of food insecurity, the highest rate of all 10 provinces. That rate has increased as the cost of living goes up, while the minimum wage remains the lowest in the country.
Traditional food-based interventions fail to reduce food insecurity
Multiple systematic research reviews have found that traditional food-based interventions, such as food banks, fail to reduce food insecurity. Whether it’s a short-term crisis or a long-term struggle, these families face many barriers to accessing support from traditional food programs. There are time-consuming referral processes. Invasive questionnaires. Challenges getting to and from food distribution locations on a bus or in a taxi. And feelings of embarrassment. Only a fraction of food-insecure households access these supports.
Yet there is a grocery store right down the street offering everything they need to plan, purchase and provide regular, healthy meals for their children – while fulfilling their broader needs for dignity, convenience, and choice in the foods they eat. We need to empower families to access what’s already available in their community.
Grocery gift cards provide more than food
Food insecurity is not about a lack of food. It’s about a lack of income to meet essential needs. That’s why our grocery gift card program gets beyond the food bank model. Donors invest in our program to provide a particular type of targeted income supplement – grocery gift cards – delivered through a network of partner agencies who are already providing other critical services to low-income families.
We have done our homework, conducting research with the University of Calgary and the O’Brien Institute for Public Health.
First, grocery gift cards quickly and directly address the underlying financial strain that prevents vulnerable families from accessing enough healthy food. They also empower families in many other ways that traditional food programs do not – just through shopping in the local grocery store.
Families receiving grocery gift cards value the dignity, freedom, and choice the model provides. They can:
- Shop at convenient grocery store locations near their workplace, their children’s school, or along their usual transit route
- Use grocery delivery services when they face barriers related to transportation, cold weather, poor health, or mobility issues and disabilities
- Go to stores with the best prices, sales, and promotions to extend their budgets
- Choose from an unlimited selection of foods including fresh fruits and vegetables, high-quality proteins, and foods that reflect their culture, dietary needs and preferences
- Receive private and discreet support – with no embarrassment or stigma
Investing wisely
It’s also a very efficient approach, where donors’ generous contributions are invested for maximum impact. We buy grocery gift cards at discounted rates from the stores families request the most. Through our partner network, frontline staff get to know families and target the cards to those in greatest need. There are no costly warehouses, complex logistics, extensive staff and volunteers, or waste.
When we put ourselves in the shoes of people experiencing food insecurity, we find that grocery stores are the best place for groceries. It’s an incredibly simple concept that transforms the way we deliver support, fulfilling needs beyond “just food”.
References:
- Food-based interventions to mitigate household food insecurity in Canada: a systematic review (Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada: 45(9), 2025 September)
- Public policy interventions to mitigate household food insecurity in Canada: a systematic review (Public Health Nutrition: 27(e83), 2024 January 4)
- Experiences and perceived outcomes of a grocery gift card programme for households at risk of food insecurity (Public Health Nutrition: 26(11) 2023 August 2)
- Alberta Living Wage Report (Alberta Living Wage Network, 2025 November)
- Statistics Canada. Table 13-10-0835-01 Food insecurity by selected demographic characteristics (2025 May 1)
This article was originally published in October 2025 and was updated in January 2026.
About I Can for Kids Foundation
I Can for Kids works closely with multiple agency partners to target and distribute grocery gift cards to food-insecure families in greatest need. The iCAN grocery gift card program is a more dignified and inclusive approach to dealing with food insecurity, allowing families to shop where everyone else shops and to choose foods that are appropriate for their health and cultural needs. Explore their website to discover more about iCAN’s impact over the years.
For more information and media inquiries, please contact iCAN Executive Director, Bobbi Turko at bobbi@icanforkids.ca.
