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Dan Forde remembers the first time he needed to use the Veterans Food Bank in Calgary.

He said he felt a sense of emptiness, one the 10-year veteran of the Canadian Forces struggled to shake.

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“I sat out in the parking lot for an hour and a half in my vehicle before I could go in and I’m sure I was beet red because I felt humiliated,” Forde said. “I felt broken and defeated. The only reason I was even able to go in there was because I knew, that’s for veterans.”

Soon, that won’t be an option. The Royal Canadian Legion’s Alberta and Northwest Territories Command said last week the food bank will be shutting down in January 2019 to free up funding for other initiatives.

Forde, who served in the military from 1986 to 1996, said that like many other veterans, he’s angry about the closure.

“They deal with veterans, they know how we react, how we talk, how we think. There’s that familiarity there,” he said. “To use a civilian food bank, we would still have those emotions, but then you’re dealing with people who don’t know how we think.”