Ryan Nugent-Hopkins presents $5K cheques to food banks at Amazon fulfillment centre

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins presenting $5,000 cheques to Food Banks Alberta and Leduc & District Food Bank Association at the Edmonton Amazon fulfillment centre on Dec. 9, 2024. (Brandon Lynch/CTV News Edmonton)

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins traded his skates for a safety vest for the day after visiting an Amazon fulfillment centre Monday afternoon.

The Oilers left-winger got a behind-the-scenes look at Amazon's YEG1 fulfillment centre in Nisku, Alta., and spent some time picking and packing customers' orders.

After lending a helpful hand, Nugent-Hopkins presented $5,000 cheques to Food Banks Alberta and the Leduc and District Food Bank on behalf of Amazon.

Food Banks Alberta's executive director Shawna Bissell told CTV News Edmonton on Monday how far the money donated will go to support food banks across Alberta.

"We are the food bank for food banks. We have 113 food banks across the province, and this money will go to support the rural food banks, the urban food banks, the small food banks, the large – it's going to make a huge impact across the entire province," Bissell said.

According to Bissell, food banks are in need of more support than ever as their "numbers go higher every year" and are "serving more people every year with less resources."

"Every dollar counts, and we make sure that every dollar we receive is used as effectively and efficiently as possible to feed hungry Albertans," she added.

Gert Reynar, the executive director for Leduc and District Food Bank Association, told CTV News Edmonton that food banks have a better purchasing power than customers, but are faced with the same increase in costs as everyone else.

"What I could buy for $5,000, say, a year and a half (or) two years ago, is now very little comparative to what it used to be," Reynar said. "I don't know how long food banks will be able to sustain it without … some federal or provincial funding."

As for Nugent-Hopkins, he agrees with the executive directors' sentiment.

"The food bank obviously puts in so much work and does so much good for the community, and always has … they do amazing work in this community," he said.

Nugent-Hopkins and the rest of the team are hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning Tuesday at 7 p.m. and Amazon will live-stream the Dec. 16 game against the Florida Panthers on Amazon Prime.