The Yk Cares program knows that hunger doesn’t take weekends off.
And its supporters know that those two days can be a long time for growing children who don't have enough food to eat.
Robyn Coleman, the coordinator for Yk Cares, a volunteer-run program, said now that the school year has started, Yellowknife students from kindergarten through Grade 12 attending Weledeh, St. Pat’s, Mildred Hall or St. Joseph schools and also the NWT Disabilities Council who need a few weekend meals will not do without.
“The intention is to provide food when they're unable to access the breakfast and lunch program they receive through the schools,” Coleman said of the initiative that runs throughout the school year.
“Typically, biweekly we pack for 165 to 200 kids, and it increased post-Covid,” she said of the growing demand for food.
On Saturday, Yk Cares and its volunteers were at the Yellowknife Co-op holding a food drive and selling $13.99 pre-packaged food kits for patrons to buy and donate to help support the program.
“Typically, we purchase the food prior to packing and then send it off to the schools," Coleman said. “Since we've been launching this food drive, we always have received a lot of support from the Co-op grocery store. Not only did it allow us to run our program completely at their store, but also, they have financially supported us significantly.
“What we've done is pre-packaged a bunch of kits that we think will last us until the end of December, and we're selling those at the till so that people in the community can help support the program financially,” Coleman added.
Cooperating to help end hunger
Jeff Kincaid, the business development manager at the Co-op, said the store has been a supporter of Yk Cares since the organization's inception almost a decade ago.
“This is a great program in that we can get some food items to kids that are maybe suffering from some food insecurity on evenings and weekends and so for the Co-op, our number one charitable goal that we want to accomplish is to help alleviate food security and hunger issues here in town. That's kind of where we like to focus our donation and our community efforts,” Kincaid said.
Coleman said their goal is to pack food kits with non-perishable, easy-to-prepare food items such as Kraft Dinner cups, apple sauce, fruit cups, oatmeal packages, cheese and crackers or tuna.
“We try to do our best to focus on the nutritional needs,” she added.
It takes a village
By the end of the day, Coleman said 458 kits were sold at Co-op.
To add to the total, the Co-op donated $10,000 to the effort, as did Khione Resources, while Yellowknife Beverages donated $500, delivered the food to the schools, plus provided refreshments and snacks for the volunteers during the busy Saturday event.
Coleman said she was thankful for the support and for anyone who missed the Saturday support drive, she said the Co-op always accepts donations for Yk Cares directly at the till and 100 per cent of the donations received go toward the purchase of food for the kits.
“The intention is to reach every kid that would possibly need support,” she said.
Correction: Devon Hodder's title was previously misstated. He is vice-president of the Yellowknife Co-op board.
