“Starting now right up until Christmas Eve is obviously the most crucial and critical time for, for those of us who are trying to make sure that people have what they need to eat,” says Major Tony Brushett, executive director of the Salvation Army.
The organization is partnering with Lakeshore Co-op to bring healthy food to the tables of folks struggling with food insecurity in the territory. This year they are partnering up again for an annual Thanksgiving food drive, packing up their biggest stash of food hampers to date. The Salvation Army is also hosting their annual community Thanksgiving dinner, which typically serves hundreds of meals out of it’s 45th Street location in Yellowknife.
“Also on Thanksgiving Monday, we do a community Thanksgiving turkey dinner. So last year we served about 350 people in a couple of hours,” explained Brushett.
Over the weekend the Salvation Army is working with Lakeshore Co-op in Yellowknife to move 600 hampers full of nutritious food staples like rice, peanut butter and oatmeal ready for donation. The Co-op is also participating in a food rescue program where last month alone they donated over 2,000 kg of food to organizations dealing with food security issues.
Major Brushett said last year the Co-op sold all 450 food hampers that were packed up and distributed to those in need by Salvation Army workers and volunteers.
Last year, the organization also provided Christmas week meals for roughly 600 families in Yellowknife and some of the surrounding communities as well and toys for 300 children through their toy drive.
“So those are some of the things that we do here,” said Brushett.
This is on top of the regular programming the Salvation Army runs.
“We offer our emergency food bank on Mondays and Thursdays and on a typical busy week we could see 100 families. So that’s that’s every week of the year. Certain occasions, particularly Thanksgiving coming up, we’re doing a food drive with Co-op, which is important because they’ll supply about 600 hampers which will help us get through the next couple of months in our food bank,” said Brushett.
The organization has seen a lot of new families accessing food services like the food bank, especially in the last couple of years, he explained. In the past, the main demograph accessing these resources was single people and couples.
Brushett says that no matter where they come from or how large or small their family is, people are grateful for the food and other needed items.
Having worked in this sector for many decades, he says that the gratitude people express is a reward in itself.
“The only reward that we ever want to see is that we’ve made somebody happy made a family happy and we’re able to make sure they’re okay. So we get all kinds of reactions, so many very, very positive ones, especially from people who are not used to being in a system where they’re given things and when they find themselves there, we try out best to make sure each person we are dealing with has the most dignity that they can while going through this. Because we already know that people are struggling, we don’t need them to struggle when they come here for help for food for toys and that type of thing,” said Brushett.
Justin Nelson, general manager of Lakeshore Co-op, said the annual Thanksgiving food drive always attracts many participants.
“It’s an event that we’ve been doing with the Salvation Army now for a number of years and what that entails is putting together grocery hampers for our members to purchase at the store and then donate to the Salvation Army.”
On Thursday, volunteers from the Salvation Army will come into the store to package all the hampers to have them ready for sale on Friday.
If people want to donate a hamper they will be available for purchase in store.
Folks are also welcome to purchase a frozen turkey for donation or donate canned goods, dry goods and other non-perishable items, said Nelson
The anticipated food drive will begin Friday.
“We’ll start putting hampers on the floor on Friday and then Saturday, the Salvation Army will be here to collect the hampers,” said Nelson.
Folks are also welcome to attend a community barbecue on Saturday at the Lakeshore Co-op on Old Airport Road.
Nelson said that food drives like this are critical for organizations like the Co-Op to help support food security as many people across the territory do not have enough food to eat.
“When we team up with organisations out there, it’s important for the Co-op to give back to the community. That’s what we do. We sell food and we sell gas. Food’s a big part of our business, it’s pretty much the biggest part of our business. So, it makes sense for us to help donate and work with groups that feed those in need.”
The Co-op sees lots of foot traffic each day and with many food transactions happening in a day, having the hampers ready for donation streamlines the process so that more donated food can make its way to those in need.
“On a Saturday we’ll more than likely do about two to three thousand transactions. So those are people coming to the store and people in Yellowknife and Co-op members are very, very generous. We’ve been doing this for a number of years and we typically go through all the hampers,” explained Nelson.
Nelson said from what he has seen over the years, people in the territory are concerned about food security and focussed on helping each other.
“They don’t like to see people go without, especially during the holidays. And it’s just their way of giving back.”
“We have had a lot of success with the food drives that we do over the years,” added Nelson.
The Lakeshore Co-op just opened their Hay River store and Nelson said they plan to organize a similar initiative at their Hay River site sometime in the future.
The Co-op also participates in a food rescue program, donating any vegetables, fruit, dry goods, dairy and meat they have not sold to be repurposed throughout town, given to organizations like the Salvation Army, other soup kitchens and food programs.
In September alone, the Co-op donated 2,300 kg of rescued food.
