Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Dec 17/01) - When officials condemned the Sailivik building in August, the city's soup kitchen lost its home. But a dedicated group of Iqalungmiut are committed to replacing what was lost.

Iqaluit has an estimated 120 homeless people -- about 20 of them without a place to stay at night. The rest bounce between residences, having nothing to call home.

"We're just trying to do something simple: feed the people who are hungry," said Doug Lem, the owner of Nunavut Catering.

Lem and Ron McLean of the Anglican Church are co-ordinating the kitchen's revival. They will run it out of a building located in Iqaluit's downtown core. Students in the high school's cooking program will prepare the 520 meals over the course of the winter. The kitchen will close May 31, with spring's thaw.

Volunteer help from the community will be on staff.

The planned cost for the initiative is $74,880 this year and $20,000 more next year, when organizers hope to start the kitchen in September.

Long-term plans call for use of the Coast Guard building for a homeless centre, which would include a kitchen and housing.

To pay for the kitchen, Lem and McLean approached city council and are petitioning other members of the community to help out.

"Some of the homeless people can't help the situation they are in. Maybe we can help by feeding them," said McLean.

But the proposal has drawn fire from some quarters. Some critics worry that handing out food for free is another way to mire people in the system.

"There's no call for self-reliance at an individual level or even at a group level," said Coun. Chris Wilson, who wants to see those eating at the soup kitchen help serve the meals. "There's no expectation to succeed."

A better program would train the homeless on cooking before giving them responsibility in the kitchen, said Lee Smith, the executive director of the Illitiit Society.

"It depends on what kind of community people want. If you want people ill and eating out of garbage cans it's not a necessity," he said.

"If you want a more vibrant, cared-for community I suppose some people would consider that a necessity."