The Rowan House emergency shelter society has received just over $10,000 from the Province to help with rising food costs.

Executive Director Linette Soldan says they're very grateful to the government for providing assistance to domestic abuse shelters for food, especially considering how costs have risen.

"We do know one thing is that the last two years has been marked by affordability challenges in Alberta and with food prices rising at the highest rate I think in nearly 20 years, and also rental costs rising by nearly 30 per cent and the vacancy rate at its lowest in over 14 years and so what we're finding is inflation has really hit and it's really important for us to receive that money," Soldan says.

She adds they that while the government help is certainly appreciated, they couldn't get through the year without the generosity of the community.

"Even though we're very grateful for this grant to help support our food budget I would say approximately $20,000 is what we have to additionally raise, which comes from our community and our donors in order to make sure that we're balancing the books and making sure we're meeting the needs of clients who are accessing our services."

Soldan says gifts in kind from businesses like grocery stores and meat orders have really helped out too.

She says they do go through a lot of food and incidentals.

"Our emergency shelter is 24 beds, we have women, with and without children that are accessing our services and we do have turnover approximately every 30 days so we're really supporting quite a few individuals in the community," she says.

She wants to point out that some of their clients have special food needs because of special diets and it's not just food they have to buy but things like personal hygiene products, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste.