Every year, the Calgary Stampede does something that, for most of the year, society pretends is impossible. Through volunteerism, charity, and corporate sponsorship, Calgary feeds all who want a meal — including many who need one.
Like many Calgarians, my relationship with the Stampede has ebbed and flowed over the years, from a feverish yahoo to an oppositional, defiant yeehaw — from a love of the energy that spreads through the city to a curmudgeonly scowl at corporate excess. But despite that complicated relationship, what I love most about the Stampede is that for 10 days a year, Calgary proves that when we come together, food insecurity can become a thing of the past.
Now we just have to put that same energy toward the other 355 days.
Calgarians travel in packs across the city to take in a meal together at the many Stampede breakfasts on offer — whether it’s the official Calgary Stampede Caravan Breakfasts sponsored by Enmax, local breakfasts put on by businesses, non-profits, and charities, or community breakfasts spurred by neighbours who just want to bring neighbours together.
Pancakes get flipped, sausages get served, and Calgarians from every background break bread as neighbours. At CF Chinook Centre alone last year, that meant more than 26,000 pancakes served in a single morning — enough to set a Guinness World Record.
Part of the overall affordability squeeze in Calgary – and Canada
But in the days leading up to Stampede, and the days that follow, food insecurity remains one of the top issues facing Calgary families. Alberta continues to report the highest rate of food insecurity of any Canadian province — 28.4 per cent of the population, as of the most recent data, meaning people are skipping meals, buying less groceries, or leaning hard on charities like the Calgary Food Bank just to get by. The Calgary Foundation’s 2025 Quality of Life Report found that 44 per cent of parents have skipped a meal so their children could eat.
Food insecurity is part of the broader affordability crisis facing Canadians. Research from the Calgary Food Bank, done in partnership with the School of Public Policy and the Calgary Homeless Foundation, has drawn clear links between food insecurity, food bank usage, and homelessness.
Sadly, poverty is too often treated like a moral failure. People are told to pick themselves up by their bootstraps, or that “people just don’t want to work anymore.” That stigma makes it hard to even talk about the fact that more than 1 in 3 food bank users are working people who are still coming up short.
The volunteers at the Calgary Food Bank, and at food banks nationwide, have always led with kindness — knowing the reasons people walk through their doors are as varied as the people themselves, and that opening those doors without judgment is what lets a family put a meal on the table. Growing up, that generosity put meals on my own table. I was too young to understand the stigma, but I wasn’t too young to see the kindness the staff and volunteers showed my mom.
That kindness is of the highest moral character, and I can’t overstate my gratitude for the work these organizations do, or how they do it.
The power is there, but is the will?
The number of organizations working to end food insecurity is growing to match the need, because the need keeps growing too — rising costs, food price inflation, and stagnant wages are leaving more people behind and unsure where their next meal is coming from. Brown Bagging for Kids provides lunches for K-12 students across the city. The Community Kitchen Program of Calgary hustles to get affordable, nutritious food to families while teaching people how to cook well on a budget.
Last year, the Calgary Stampede generated an estimated $664 million in economic activity in Calgary alone. Imagine if even a fraction of that spirit — the corporate sponsorships, the volunteer hours, the sheer organizational muscle it takes to flip 26,000 pancakes in a morning — were redirected at scale toward the organizations already doing this work year-round.
Food insecurity is a growing problem, but it is not an unsolvable one. Calgary already has the ingredients: an entrepreneurial spirit, a deep well of volunteerism, and the combined sponsorship budgets of the companies that power its economy. What’s missing isn’t capacity — it’s the decision to point that capacity at this problem for more than 10 days a year.
So while I’ll happily skip the crowds and won’t miss the anxiety of ever marching in the Stampede Parade again, I fall in love with the Calgary Stampede every year for one reason: It’s the one time I get to see what a city looks like when everyone can eat — and, more importantly, everyone can eat together.
