Sandra Lester, vice-chair of the Hay River Seniors’ Society spent three hours on a Thursday back in January at the Super A Foods grocery store providing $50 gift cards to help older people pay for their food bills.
Both Hay River stores hold a Senior’s Day on Thursdays where older residents can get a 10 per cent discount on food items.
“As seniors came through I just paid for them with $50 cards,” she said. “Anybody that I knew who might be struggling without a pension, I just walked over and paid $50 to help them. I probably did 50 people that day.”
These days, such numbers are no surprise for residents especially those on fixed incomes and hunger in the community is getting worse in the eyes of Lester based on such interactions.
A recent $40,000 grant was received by the Senior’s Society last week from Community Food Centres Canada’s Good Food Access Funding in response to a joint application for assistance with the town that will hopefully address rising grocery prices and people in need.
In part, much of that money will go toward continuing to provide food gift cards to seniors but will also be divided among other non-profits providing food for people in need.
The cost of groceries is among the biggest culprits and it impacts everyone, Lester said.
“It’s just horrific,” she said. “The government just hasn’t kept up with what people need, so people are really going hungry. I know people in the singles (apartment building) and stuff that are going hungry. People in this (seniors society) building are going hungry.
“The price of groceries has literally taken meat and protein foods off the market, not just for seniors but for everybody. They might be able to get some hamburger, Hamburger Helper and pork chops sometimes, but most times, meat prices are out of the reach of most people.”
While the Senior’s Society receives the money, Lester said it is critical that the community understand that hunger applies to all-ages.
As a result, $12,000 of the money will go to the seniors society to buy food and gift grocery cards for seniors, while another $12,000 will go to the Hay River Soup Kitchen and $13,000 will go to the food hamper program run out of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church.
The remaining $3,000 will be used to assist the homeless shelter’s operations and to purchase restaurant vouchers for people in need on weekends.
Ron and Norma Shaw help assort the food hamper program out of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church while Rev. Francis Delaplain lists people who call in need and does the grocery shopping.
Ron said that although the couple started volunteering in November, he has seen the demand for food hampers increase from six to eight hampers to over 20 currently.
“The orders for hampers are going way up and the grocery prices have put a burden on us,” he said. “We’re quite a bit higher than what we were before.
“I think that the bottom line is if you’re on a fixed income, the price of groceries has been a real massive shock for you for the last six months.”
Michele Stephens, president of the Hay River Soup Kitchen just reopened her facility for the first time in three weeks on Feb. 14 for pick-up orders only.
She said her $12,000 portion will go a long way in helping feed people this year, with half of each to go to the town’s Northmart and Super A Foods to buy food and supplies.
She has been heading the food kitchen in downtown Hay River since the end of 2019 and these days she gets anywhere from 100 to 120 people everyday seeking food when open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“The numbers are definitely higher than they were,” she said, comparing people attending to previous years. “The numbers are more consistent and we don’t tend to see highs and lows. The numbers are just steady.
“There’s hungry people out there. Homelessness is a true problem here but (community hunger) is not limited to the folks that are staying in the homeless centre. There are the house hoppers.
“Hunger and homelessness are not always directly tied because we see different variations with people who have experienced a a loss of jobs or reduced income or limited income or no income.”
Mayor Kandis Jameson, who formally presented a cheque on Feb. 12 said from her experience serving on the Hay River District Education Authority and in recent years leading as mayor, hunger among residents is quite apparent.
“I was on education board for many years and we had a breakfast program and then of course, the Soup Kitchen opened up,” she said. “It was surprising to me how many families and children use those initiatives.
“It’s probably a bigger issue than most realize. The soup kitchen in particular is huge for this community and they really upped their game and supported us through Covid-19.
Many families rely on the soup kitchen especially to get them by during the last week of the month until they get money coming in again.”