Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Aug 14/02) - The pantry shelves at the Kataujaq Society's safe shelter and day care now have a lot more on them, thanks to a generous donation by the Western Mining Co. earlier this month.

The WMC donated about $5,000 worth of food items to the society.

Kataujaq's executive director, Evelyn Thordarson, says the company was shutting down its exploration camp for the season and the food was left over from the operation.

She says the society received cans of juice and soup, a variety of cereals and numerous other canned goods.

"The company (WMC) brought the food in from the camp site by helicopter," says Thordarson. "Some of it was delivered by a WMC employee and the rest was brought over by M&T Enterprise Ltd.

"The WMC actually donated the food to the safe shelter, but, because we're a society, we passed on a number of the items to our day-care operations."

This wasn't the first time the WMC made a generous donation to the Kataujaq Society.

The company closed down a local house it had been maintaining this past year. With the closure, the Kataujaq Society received pots and pans, dishes, beds and a large amount of food items.

"Those things really came in handy to a number of our clients who didn't have items like that."

Thordarson says every donation is always appreciated, but this year's gift from the WMC was especially timely.

She says it's a struggle for the safe shelter to budget enough money to meet the demand for food items.

"We traditionally average about 350 bed nights per year, but we've had 148 bed nights in the past four months alone. And, we've already admitted 52 women and children into our shelter this year."

The "grocery" budget Thordarson has to work with is not limited strictly to food.

The money also goes towards the purchase of toilet paper, laundry soap and cleaning supplies.

"That's why a donation such as the WMC's is so extra helpful to us right now," Thordarson says.

"The WMC has always supported the safe shelter and, in my dealings with the company, has shown itself to be very community minded."