Community marks 10 years of service
The Mustard Seed marked a decade in Red Deer this week with a free community barbecue, using the occasion to outline how demand for food and emergency shelter has grown since the charity set up in the city. Over 10 years, the organization says it has served 919,505 meals and assembled 677,861 school lunches for students in and around Red Deer.
“Food is kind of like oxygen. If you have it, you don’t think about it … But if you don’t have food … it’s the only thing you think about,”
Mustard Seed CEO James Gardiner told attendees, underscoring how access to regular meals can stabilize people who are otherwise stuck in survival mode.
School lunches expand as families struggle
According to Laura Giesbrecht, the charity’s senior director of food services, the school lunch program began with roughly 125 students and now reaches “upwards of 600” in and around Red Deer. Demand for hot meals served through the organization’s community programs has also climbed, she said, driven by tighter household finances.
“Families are finding it harder to make ends meet. When you have to decide between paying your rent or buying groceries, people choose paying rent,”
Giesbrecht said, adding that the charity’s food services aim to ease that trade-off for local families.
From Loaves and Fishes to a city hub
The charity’s Red Deer footprint dates to 2016, when the Loaves and Fishes Benevolent Society transferred its assets to the Mustard Seed. The organization assumed operations at 6002 54th Ave. on July 4, 2016, consolidating meal programs, outreach and supports under one roof. Two years later, in 2018, the Mustard Seed took over operation of the shelter located in the basement of the building in Riverside Meadows, which has since recorded 86,633 nightly check-ins.
Shelter supervisor Dwayne Kraushar said the facility provides more than a bed, with clients able to access food, laundry and showers, along with staff support to connect them to housing and other services. In the past six months, he said, the shelter has served 230 unique individuals, with 57 moving into housing — some independently and others with help from partner agencies.
High occupancy points to sustained pressure
Occupancy data shared by the Mustard Seed suggest the shelter operates near capacity. Over the past year, the 35 beds for men were 93% filled on average, while the 11 beds for women were 87% filled. Kraushar emphasized the shelter’s role as a short-term measure on the way to stable housing.
“This isn’t a home. This is a place where people get the help that they need to get back into housing,”
he said.
| Program metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Meals served (10 years) | 919,505 |
| School lunches (10 years) | 677,861 |
| Shelter nightly check-ins (since 2018) | 86,633 |
| Men's shelter beds (avg. occupancy) | 35 beds at 93% |
| Women's shelter beds (avg. occupancy) | 11 beds at 87% |
| Unique shelter clients (past 6 months) | 230 |
| Clients moved to housing (past 6 months) | 57 |
What this means for Red Deer
The scale of food support and the sustained demand for shelter beds speak to broader pressures facing low- and fixed-income households in Red Deer. The Mustard Seed’s figures indicate that, as the cost of living tightens margins, more people rely on community meals while schools and families depend on the lunch program to keep students fed through the school day. For those without stable housing, the shelter’s high occupancy rates point to a steady need for emergency spaces and coordinated pathways into permanent homes.
- Food security: Rising use of meal and school lunch programs suggests food budgets are under strain, particularly for families balancing rent and groceries.
- Emergency shelter: Near-capacity beds for both men and women show ongoing pressure on temporary housing resources.
- Transition supports: The reported moves into housing over the past six months highlight the role of staff in navigating services, as well as the importance of collaboration with other agencies.
As the organization enters its second decade in Red Deer, the numbers it shared at Monday’s event outline both what has been accomplished and what remains: maintaining meal programs that have grown in step with need, and operating a shelter that remains a critical, if temporary, stop on the journey back to stable housing.
