The Drumheller Salvation Army is the latest community group that has benefitted from the World’s Largest Dinosaur.
The Worlds Largest Dinosaur Legacy Fund invests a portion of the funds generated by visitation to the World’s Largest Dinosaur and the gift shop to community economic development initiatives in the region.
The fund provided $2,000 worth of materials to upgrade the Drumheller Salvation Army Food Bank.
“With the Chamber’s donation, we were able to make the food bank more organized, efficient, and safer,” said Lt. Rachel Sheils of the Drumheller Salvation Army.
Upgrades to the Food Bank include an upright freezer. While they did not replace any shelves, they have been enhanced with bins that increase the storage. Rather than just being able to stack cans, they can fill the whole shelf area with food. This system allows them to better date sort the food, thus reducing spoilage.
The change has allowed the Food Bank to condense the complete operation from three rooms to just two and also has made it more efficient for volunteers to fill hampers.
“For our volunteers, it means they have a better work environment. If we can keep our volunteers happy, we can also serve the community better,” said Sheils. “For those who make donations to The Salvation Army, we want to make sure that nothing expires on our shelves. When we receive a donation, we category sort them and date sort them, and this set up allows us to make sure we are good stewards of what donations we receive.”
The improvements also include hand sanitizer stations, and every item for the improvement is portable, so if the Church decided to move its Food Bank operation, this investment would not be lost.
President of the Drumheller and District Chamber of Commerce, Cindy Clark said The Salvation Army’s application to the Legacy Fund outlined the need for the improvements.
“We saw pictures of what it looked like before and how they desperately needed some equipment to make it better,” said Clark, “We were glad the Legacy Fund offered us the opportunity to do that.”
The Chamber of Commerce wants to be the voice for business in the community, but that also means we help out those less fortunate in the community.”
The Legacy Fund has paid out $60,000 since its inception, with 11 community groups receiving support for a variety of worthy projects.
