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Food banks prepare for holidays

Food banks across the territory are preparing for the holiday season, and the people running them have some advice for people who are thinking of donating this year: keep it simple.

Margaret Miller, treasurer with the Inuvik Food Bank, says what's needed most isn't canned soup or boxes of pasta at her organization: it's cash. At the Inuvik Food Bank, clients pay $10 for a flat, containing ground beef, eggs, rolled oats or miscuit mix, chicken noodle soup and potaotes—about $40 worth of food. NNSL file photo

“KD, soups, cans of beans—the basic things are safe because they’re always in need,” says Laura Rose, manager of the Hay River Soup Kitchen, which operates a food bank for the community. “Money’s good when you don’t know what to get.”

At some food banks, money’s preferable. Margaret Miller, the treasurer for the Inuvik Food Bank, says her organization’s shelves are full of donated food but money is needed to pay for the food they put into flats for clients.

The flats are a new item for the Inuvik Food Bank, containing ground beef, a half-dozen eggs, rolled oats or biscuit mix, chicken noodle soup and potatoes. The bank charges clients $10 for each flat, which itself contains about $40 worth of food.

“When we were just handing out food to everybody, we were handing out between 100 and 110 bags every Wednesday,” says Miller. “We just couldn’t sustain that.”

“The board thought that if we just charged a small user fee and increased the nutrition value of what they were getting, it would hopefully make the clients feel that they’re contributing to their own well-being.”

Now the bank gets close to 45 clients each week when it’s open, on Wednesdays.

“We buy our goods [for the flats],” says Miller. “To do that, we fundraise and work bingos to gather money. Food is expensive up here.”

Miller says there is plenty of support from the community in terms of donated food—the local justice committee gathers food around town in November, East Three Secondary School does a drive in December and the bank also collects food and money donations at a local craft sale at the end of November. All these items go on the “freebie shelf,” from which clients are typically allowed to choose four items.

“Our freebie shelves are in very good shape,” says Miller, and because of this the bank will be letting people take five items from the shelves per visit throughout December.

Back in Hay River, Rose says the soup kitchen is doing well enough to almost keep on top of demand—which can be up to 60 people coming by for hot lunches, and 20 to 25 people for food from the bank.

“We are actually doing better than we’ve done ever,” says Rose, crediting the work of the soup kitchen’s board. “We’re still not quote 'on top of it' but we’re getting very close to being on top of it.”

Right now, Rose is putting together plans for a big feast the Friday before Christmas, at which she expects 60 people or more to show up.

“Turkey and ham and the whole nine yards,” says Rose. “I usually get some Christmas baking done. Oh yes, I put on a feast over here.”