SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A crunch for food donations was felt amongst the different organizations in the city this holiday season.
Heather Chang and son Simon helped out at the Yellowknife Food Bank shortly after Christmas. - Nicole Garbutt/NNSL photo
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Thanks to the generosity of residents and a two-part workshop held earlier this winter, the food hampers were filled in time for Christmas.
There were more hampers put together this year that previous years, about 280, according to Brian Birch, director of programs for the Yellowknife Salvation Army.
"And that is just in town for people to pick up. There were over 200 sent out into the communities," he said.
Grant Pryznyk, president of the Yellowknife Food Bank thinks that a two-part workshop held for the different support organizations in the city helped create an understanding between the groups about their roles in the community and the continuous need for food.
"It was a big familiarization for everybody," he said. "Between staff turnover, new policies, things like that, it was good to all get together and talk about what we are doing," said Pryznyk.
The first part of the workshop was held in mid-September and a followup was done in the third week of November. This was the first year the workshop was held. All the organizations that provide a food service were invited and discussed what their roles are in the community.
Pryznk said some of the organizations in attendance were the YWCA, the Centre for Northern Families, the SideDoor Youth Centre and Food Rescue.
"Food Rescue is kind of the main player among the organizations. They pick up, sort and distribute to all the different groups," said Pryznk.
Ruby Trudel, co-founder of Food Rescue, said it is very important for all the agencies who are distributing food in the communities to be aware of what each one is doing.
"Our resources are not expanding so we need to make sure that we are not duplicating services," she said.
Pryznk said the groups work together, ensuring the food collected is distributed to as many people as possible.
"Twenty-pound bags of flour for example, (Food Rescue) volunteers will bag it up into family sizes for us to hand out on distribution days," he said.
Capt. Ian Gillingham of the Salvation Army and Stacey Van Metre, program co-ordinator for the Christmas hampers project, said Birch, adding the two-part workshop went very well.
"They got a great deal out of it and I think what we offered verbally was helpful to everyone else," he said.
"Everything was kind of thrown into the middle and people took away what was helpful for them...a great workshop from the sounds of it."
The Salvation Army had a deadline of Dec. 16 for those in need to get an application in for a Christmas hamper and Birch said he was doing overflow applications up until the last minute.
"What we did for anyone who came late was, if we didn't have a Christmas hamper done up, we did up a regular one with extras," he said. "It may not have been an official Christmas hamper, but they still walked a way with a nice one for Christmas dinner. No one went away hungry."
Although the Yellowknife Food Bank does not put out specific Christmas hampers, Pryznk said it does run a biweekly distribution day held every second Saturday.
Located in a donated space in the lower level of the Overlander Sports, the next scheduled distribution day is on Jan. 12 from 9:30 a.m. until 12 p.m.
Pryznk also reminds residents that there are ongoing donation drop-offs at both Extra Foods locations as well as the Yellowknife Direct Charge Co-op.
Residents can also add $5 donations to their bill at the Co-op which the Yellowknife Food Bank then can use to purchase items.
