As food insecurity reaches all-time high in Alberta, a program being run from a church in Coaldale with MyCityCare is doing their part to this by providing meals for kids.
Healthy Heroes is a program that provides free nutritious lunches for children who might go without otherwise. When the program first started, 30 lunches were provided each week at one school.
Now the program has expanded to four schools. When kids are back in school, it is anticipated they will be serving around 50 to 60 lunches a week.
“I like Healthy Heroes because it meets a very real need,” said Susan Harms, one of the program’s coordinators. “It enables us as a church and as an organization to engage meaningfully with the community.”
New data on household food insecurity on 2024 from Statistics Canada show the urgency of the issue. In May 2025, the agency had reported that over 1.4 million Albertans now live in food-insecure households with nearly two in five kids among them. In Canada, Alberta has the third-highest rate of food insecurity and the highest rate of severe food insecurity.
Which means more people are going without meals or not eating longer than anywhere else in Canada.
Harms said the program provides a “barrier-free” way for families to get support without proof of need.
“Some people don’t qualify for it because they’re not ‘poor enough,’ but they are still struggling,” she said.
For Cody Friesen who is a volunteer, this issue is deeply personal.
“When I think of the kind of community that I want to be a part of and the kind of lives I want to see the people in our community living, I don’t want it to be lives where food security is an issue,” said Friesen, who is also a teacher. “I see what kind of situations kids can be in regarding food security and how that can impact their lives and their well-being and their education.”
Friesen and Harms both share the same thought that Healthy Heroes goes beyond just food. It is about supporting and engaging with your community.
“It’s such a practical way to serve in the community and make an impact in people’s lives and show them that we care about them.”
