One more win, and you can call it a dynasty for the ages.
Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal once again secured the Calgary Food Bank’s Golden Lettuce Award in the 2nd annual councillors’ challenge portion of the Mayor’s annual food drive.
Dhaliwal’s office, along with Ward 5 residents, raised $19,175 in the 10-day challenge that kicked off in November during the mayor’s food drive. Councillors started off with an event to bag groceries for the food bank before going out to their communities for additional help.
The total raised among councillors for the 2023 challenge was $61,939.32.
“Through the course of 2023 I’ve talked a lot about unprecedented demand. But what we’ve also seen is unprecedented generosity,” said Melissa From, CEO of the Calgary Food Bank.
“This is a record. Never in the years, I think 38 years of doing this, we’ve never seen a total that large.”
While Coun. Dhaliwal and Ward 5 will once again be able to display the Golden Lettuce Award for the next 11 months, there were some councillors with honourable mentions on their 2023 efforts.
Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra and Ward 9 had donations of food and funds that was up 456 per cent over 2022. Ward 10’s Andre Chabot saw food and fund donations increase by 243 per cent. The last honourable mention was for Ward 11 Coun. Kourtney Penner, who raised $1,500 more in cash donations than last year.
Changes in the works?
From alluded to potential changes for the 2024 Councillors Challenge.
“I’m not quite sure yet what that’s going to look like but I think we need to make sure that it’s not just a shoo in for Councillor Dhaliwal,” she said.
For his part, Dhaliwal definitely thought a dynasty was in the works.
“Another reason for me to consider a run in 2025,” Dhaliwal quipped via text.
Mayor Jyoti Gondek said she wanted to recognize the effort that councillors have made over the past two years.
“I really want to I want to recognize the fact that we used to not engage with councillors, and I think that was a little bit of a shortfall,” the mayor said.
“Now that all of us are here trying to do this together we’ve accomplished some pretty amazing things.”
The mayor said that the Calgary Food Bank plays a critical role in supporting the needs of the community, and that includes the support of council members.
