Indigenous food bank offering traditional fares set to open in London, Ont. this fall

Members of Indigenous communities in London, Ont. will soon be able to receive traditional foods meant to help with cultural healing and reconnection, as part of a food bank pilot project.

It's being called Minomode-zewin nunge-gehwin — which translates to "healthy ways of eating" — and it's set to open up at the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre (SOAHAC) this fall. Members of the community will be able to access foods like frozen pickerel, venison, moose meat, white corn and wild rice. 

"What we're trying to do is not only fill that hunger need, you know address food insecurity, but also provide people with that connection to their culture," said Jocelyn Zurbrigg, a co-ordinator of the food bank project. 

All of the ingredients will be sourced from Indigenous farmers and hunters and gatherers. 

The food bank is a year-and-a-half long pilot project by SOAHAC in London. The organization works to provide services to Indigenous people like counselling, social support, access to food, and primary health care. They received a $135,000 grant from the London Community Foundation and all of the money will be going toward covering food costs for the food bank pilot project. 

Zurbrigg said Indigenous people living in the City of London don't have access to traditional foods. 

"I think we are going to see an incredible amount of change," she said. 

Zurbrigg said while the food bank hasn't launched yet, the organization happened to have pickerel, a traditional food, and provided it to an Indigenous woman who began to cry.  

"So she had tears in her eyes of joy, to have this pickerel, and I thought 'Wow she could have gone to Walmart and bought fish, but there's a difference between something that came from her community,'" she said. 

Abigail Feather is a volunteer with SOAHAC in London, originally from the Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Sarnia. While working at the organization's food hub, she says she's seen the effects that having traditional food can have

"I see when the fish is getting out there, people are so thankful," she said. 

"They are consumed with emotion, I've seen it, people are just happy, I can't even put it into words." 

Feather said having access to traditional food is hard for urban Indigenous people, and it's either inaccessible or unaffordable for many. It's something she says she's also struggled to find after she moved to the city in 2021.

She used to fish for pickerel at the St. Clair River while living on her reserve, and noticed that there was difficulty getting it in London. 

"Becoming an urban Indigenous person, it's like where do you source affordable pickerel? I noticed these barriers too," she said. 

Now, Feather is working with SOAHAC on finding ways to source large quantities of game and fish.

She hopes the new food bank will help others find a pathway toward healing. 

"Going back to our roots and going back to our ways of living, I think there is a lot of power there. And stepping into this power comes healing," she said. 

SOAHAC is also planning on running Indigenous cooking classes, where an elder would teach participants how to create meals using traditional food items. 

The organization has also partnered with researchers at Western University, who will interview clients who used the food bank to create a short film.

The hope is that the film will leverage ongoing funding for the food bank.