Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 26/01) - It's a Saturday morning and Anne-Marie Giroux is taking her three young children to the Yellowknife food bank. We pile into her beat-up old Chevy, but it won't start. Pieces of the truck are rusting off. The windshield is cracked.

Miriame and Corbin get ready for bed. The family of four lives in a two-bedroom apartment in Yellowknife in transitional housing. - photo by Merle Robillard

After several tries and a lot of begging, she gets it going. It stalls on the way there but makes it. "It's a good, reliable vehicle," she says. "It's just old."

Giroux entered the truck into the "ugly truck and dog" contest in last year's caribou carnival. The kids stuck a stuffed dog in the window. It won.

Still, she's glad to have the truck. Without it, she wouldn't be able to get to the food bank when it's too cold for the kids, Miriame, 4, Corbin, 3, and Dawson, 1.

When we get there, the kids make snow angels outside while Giroux waits in line.

The food bank usually gives you two bags of food, she explains. But it depends on the size of the family. She leaves with Kraft Dinner, beans, tuna, tomato soup and canned fruit.

This week, she also gets a few extras -- peanut butter, cereal, juice and hotdogs. "This is actually a pretty good week," she says. "Cornflakes is a good score."

Giroux depends on the food bank. She is a single mother on social assistance and her family survives on just over $1,000 a month.

She says the child tax benefit, introduced in 1998, was supposed to reduce child poverty. But this doesn't help her because federal government allows the GNWT to deduct the national child benefit supplement from families with children.

Giroux receives a $360.84 cheque at the beginning of the month. The next cheque, usually for $697.73, arrives in the third week. While waiting for that second cheque, she runs out of essentials -- fruit, milk, cheese, diapers.

"Right now, I have to limit apples and oranges," she says.

Giroux says she is allowed to earn $400 a month and she does work part-time at the pool. On average, she makes about $150 a month, but spends almost two-thirds of that on day care.

On top of that, Giroux is paying off a student loan. The family of four lives in a two-bedroom apartment in transitional housing.

She left an abusive marriage last year, while pregnant with her youngest child.

They stayed at an emergency centre in Taloyoak for a few days. They returned home for a month, while waiting for a space to open up in Yellowknife. Eventually, they ended up in Yellowknife.

"I was a mess," she says. "The only decision I managed to make in three months was not to go back."

Mother raised in poverty

Giroux, who grew up in Toronto, was raised in poverty herself. She never imagined she'd have to put her kids through the same ordeal. "That's the big thing that bothers me," she said. "Now they are living in the exact same thing I grew up with."

Giroux worries the lack of nutrients is affecting her children's health. She says her children now catch colds more easily and take longer to recover. "I always ask people, do they look healthy, do they look happy? Because I need to know for myself that they do."

In fact, her children are charming. At a gathering after a Take Back the Night March in September, they attack a fruit tray. But for every piece of fruit Miriame eats, she brings one back for me.

"I like to share," she explains.

Afterwards the two eldest children, Miriame and Corbin get up and dance while performers play. No one in the crowd can resist smiling.

The kids are definitely not shy: "What's your name? I'm Corbin!" says Giroux's eldest son with a grin.

The kids are always offering food to others. Perhaps it is because they appreciate it themselves. When Giroux boils muktuk, the kids crowd around, savouring every bite. They stop to bring some to me, making sure I have enough.

Giroux tries not to make money an issue. There are things she can do without money -- free skating, swimming, and activities offered by non-profit organizations.

"We spend a lot of time at the park," she says. So what? That's what they are there for."

Giroux speaks only French to her children. They are fluent in both English and French and know some Inuktitut and sign language.

She reads to them constantly.

"They don't have a lot," she says. "But they have a lot, you know?"

Giroux, who has a university degree in outdoor recreation, parks and tourism, resents the stigma associated with being on social assistance. "The stigma of a welfare mom -- that you are uneducated, have poor hygiene and social skills, I defy all of that."

She's been criticized for choosing to stay at home with her kids. Motherhood is a full-time job, she says. "But I am getting penalized every step of the way for at staying home."

"The first five years of a child's life are the most important, she adds. "I want to give them what I can for the first five years."

"My five year plan --if I'm allowed to have a five- year plan -- my kids will be at school, I'll be working full-time, I'll have a mortgage and things to hang on the wall."

Reflecting on her situation, she says: "I've always wanted kids. I have no regrets about that part. But my idea of a family included two parents. It's a situation that has been imposed on me, but I'm dealing with it."

On Corbin's third birthday, a family resource program called the Toy Library and Play Centre hosts a birthday party for Corbin.

The cake mix comes from the food bank. The Yellowknife Women's Centre provides the icing and eggs.

When the cake is brought out Corbin holds his hands to his head and giggles. He then joins in the singing of Happy Birthday.