The Central Alberta Poverty Reduction Alliance was out in Red Deer Wednesday afternoon drawing attention to the issue of food security by distributing 300 paper bags containing apples.

Also inside: literature on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, which was observed on Tuesday as well as a postcard addressed to the federal government calling for a national poverty reduction strategy.

The act was part of a nationwide campaign called Chew On This!

Monica Morrison, from CAPRA's strategy team filling paper bags. Photo courtesy Leslee Burton.

"We're trying to raise awareness around the issue that people are going hungry in a country as abundant as Canada," said Leslee Burton, a community mobilizer with the advocacy group.

"To say that yeah, we do need to establish this poverty reduction strategy in our nation. We don't have that yet. But we don't have that strategy in Red Deer either so we really have to push towards advocating to the city that this is something that's important."

According to CAPRA, close to a million people in Canada visit the food bank each month and locally, more than 38,000 people were fed by the food bank in Red Deer last year.

CAPRA states the Red Deer Food Bank Society helped feed 1,937 men, women and children last month alone.