Tiffany Thiem
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 23/98) - Thanks to the Yellowknife Women's Centre, today at noon there will be a Christmas dinner for families, not to mention gifts for mothers and their children.

This is part of the free lunch program that started four years ago. The program came about to meet the need of students and mothers struggling to survive on income support -- a program that, in some cases, only offers five dollars per person for food a day.

With fresh food donated by local hunters, mining companies and stores such as Tim Horton's, a variety of balanced meals are available daily to women. One woman, who doesn't want to be named, says she attends these lunches two to three times a week, because she lives at least 20 minutes walking distance away from her place of work. "Getting home, and then cooking, and then rushing back... Here, I can get free time to relax," she said.

The centre's executive director, Arlene Hache, said that they have an emergency food depot that stocks up in diapers and milk, "because none of the other food banks do and people generally run out of those items as well."

Hache also said a local senior citizen, Ed Sears, picks up the donated food for the depot, and brings it to the centre.

"He's a sweetheart." said Hache.

The Women's Centre has always provided women with support, and, judging by the demand, they've got their work cut out for them.

In one month alone, 650 women and 150 children used the free lunch program -- numbers that surprise Hache.

"I think that's just the tip of the iceberg, and we don't in fact reach out to all the people that need help. It more or less makes it more liveable," Hache said, adding, "Income support estimates that they have 400 families a month that go to them for help. And last year the department decided that they would remove the Christmas bonus that parents got to buy their kids gifts with."

So, today's event will offer some families Christmas cheer.

"We have a long way to go and a lot of work to do. We still have to evaluate how we provide services and make sure we are not missing the boat."