Waypoints is receiving around $105,000 from the Fort McMurray Food Festival.
The annual event, held in July for 10 days, gave people the opportunity to experience food from different restaurants, live music, and more while supporting the non-profit.
In a previous interview, Waypoints Community and Corporate Relations Manager Jason Beck told Mix News the funds will help them continue their services like their new Unity House.
“That’s obviously are most popular and very expensive program for us to operate, we just opened our new facility which is 45 beds and 45 rooms which we’re really excited about.”
He added the funds will go a long way in ensuring Waypoints can continue to provide their programs in Wood Buffalo.
“Our annual budget is about $7.4 million of which we need to raise $600,000. A common misconception that people don’t realize is when you say an organization receives government funding but our need is 100 per cent in an area the government provides 80 per cent and we have to fundraise the 20 per cent.
The food festival has supported Waypoints in each of their previous two years.
The first event was able to raise around $33,000 while last year’s activities brought in around $45,000 for the organization.
Committee Chair Krista Balsom also said it was important to help an organization that sometimes gets forgotten.
“I think it’s awesome to support the SPCA and I think it’s to support the Food Bank, I do it all the time, but I think the average person goes out and can relate to that, not everyone can relate to the work that Waypoints does, so sometimes it’s a little bit harder for those organizations to raise money.”
The Food Festival will be back for a fourth year in 2020.