How Saskatchewan is serving kindness through food-giving initiatives
CBC's virtual road trip series Land of Living Stories explores hidden gems across Saskatchewan
CBC's virtual road trip series Land of Living Stories explores the hidden gems across Saskatchewan.
We all know that Christmas is a time to give, but shouldn't that be the case year-round?
We at CBC Saskatchewan think so. So do countless people across the province who have devoted their time to giving food to those in need.
For this special edition of CBC's Land of Living Stories, we're shining a light on community food initiatives and those who give back. It's all in support of our Make The Season Kind campaign to help out the Food Banks of Saskatchewan reach their goal of raising $1 million.
Turnor Lake and Birch Narrows Community Food Centre
Food security has long been a concern in northern Saskatchewan, where the majority of the population is Indigenous.
"A lot of our families nowadays, they live in the north and food is more expensive, gas is more expensive, everything's more expensive," said Rebecca Lemaigre-Sylvestre, founder of the Turnor Lake and Birch Narrows Community Food Centre, 330 kilometres north of Meadow Lake.
"Imagine living at home, living on social assistance when you're receiving a little over $200 every two weeks. You have to pay your bills. You have to put food on the table.
"Every day a mother is thinking, how am I going to make this work? How am I going to put food on a table when I have all these bills to pay?"
Lemaigre-Sylvestre was one of those mothers. For 32 years she struggled with alcoholism. She had to give up three of her children and wasn't providing the food her other children needed.
"For most of my life, I can say I've wasted my life," said Lemaigre-Sylvestre.
"I think alcohol came before my family. And when I did reach out for help, I didn't know where to turn because I was embarrassed of what I was doing to myself. That embarrassment of going to ask somebody to help because I drank up my money."
In 2013, Lemaigre-Sylvestre decided to commit suicide.
"I wasn't going to live in this world anymore. I did too much wrong, so I tried to take my life. And I ended up in the hospital."
After hospital workers pumped her stomach, Lemaigre-Sylvestre woke up to see her young daughter.
"She was sitting beside me crying and asking why I was doing this to myself. And on the way home, I'll never forget, I told my daughter, probably for the 150th time, 'This is it. I'm done. I'm not going to drink anymore.'"
Lemaigre-Sylvestre said her daughter likely didn't believe her, because she had said those words too many times before.
Lemaigre-Sylvestre went to counselling, but it was realizing that she needed to feed her daughter that finally made her resolute.
"I never drank since. It's been almost nine years and I live my life nowadays to help my community and to help other communities."
Lemaigre-Sylvestre looked for programs to help her with food security and financial stability. It was hard.
"There was nothing out there to teach a family how to budget, to teach a family how to put a healthy meal on a table, to grow food, to fix food, to bring it from land to plate."
That's when Lemaigre-Sylvestre founded the Turnor Lake and Birch Narrows Community Food Centre. The centre does not simply give out food to those in need. Instead it teaches community members how to cook traditional and nutritious foods.
This year the Turnor Lake and Birch Narrows Community Food Centre officially became partners with Community Food Centres Canada. That means it is funded for as long as it's in existence.
"I heard the other day from somebody, 'You're just a drunk trying to become a saviour now.' That hurt my feelings a lot, because it brought back the past of what I used to be. But that's not who I am nowadays," Lemaigre-Sylvestre said.
Today, young mothers attend the food centre to learn how to sew, make pies and prepare bannock, among other things. Elders teach younger residents to make traditional winter gloves.
"To our elders, our culture is more important because we're eventually going to go back to the land … things are getting harder," said Lemaigre-Sylvestre.
"So I want our children to know how to go back to the land, how to provide themselves, how to live sustainably, how to grow a garden and take from your garden and actually cook some food that day with your children … the whole growing process and the whole hunting process."
Speaking of hunting, Lemaigre-Sylvestre says her most memorable time at the food centre was when they hunted seven moose, then brought them back for the whole community to prepare.
"Our whole community was in there sitting together and fixing moose. And we were cooking it at the same time and eating at the same time. The building was full of life. There were children, there were elders, there were young mums. It's beautiful."
Riversdale Community Fridge
It's time to head south down to Saskatoon, where the Riversdale Community Fridge — located on 20th Street West — is still in its inaugural year.
Renata Ćosić is an organizer for the fridge. She and her classmate were studying sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan when they came up with the idea. The volunteer group ballooned from there.
"Some of us have experienced food insecurity in the past, and some of us are also students in addition to working for non-profits. So we come from a variety of backgrounds," said Ćosić.
Ćosić herself came to Canada in 1996 from Croatia as a Bosnian refugee, and experienced that food insecurity upon arrival.
Today many newcomers are living off of food donations, she said.
"We are seeing a lot of newcomers who are coming and they're financially insecure and having to use services like the food bank. But they can only come every two weeks. They're not getting sufficient funding from government assistance," Ćosić said.
Ćosić said that many of these newcomers are in need of Halal foods especially. The Riversdale Community Fridge is in the process of contacting international and ethnic food stores for donations for these newcomers.
Today, the lineups outside the Riversdale Community Fridge are often long. Ćosić said this drives home the need for more community fridges in Saskatoon.
"We are the only ones and we're serving the entire city. So if more fridges open up in other neighbourhoods in Saskatoon, we could make sure that food is accessible to people who can't come here."
Guru Nanak Free Kitchen
At 6 a.m. CST each Sunday, members of Regina's Sikh community work tirelessly to prepare vats of delicious, hearty food for Regina residents in need.
The Guru Nanak Free Kitchen has operated in Regina for three years. Each Sunday you can find the kitchen's food truck at Dewdney and Angus, with volunteers handing out hundreds of free meals.
Organizers say that spot was chosen because of the over-representation of underprivileged people in the area.
Hem Juttla, co-organizer of the free kitchen, said at the core of the organization's work is the philosophy of Guru Nanak. He was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the 10 Sikh Gurus.
"You have to understand this whole thing started 550 years ago. Guru Nanak's dad gave him 20 rupees and said, 'Go do a good deed,'" Juttla said.
Guru Nanak made food and gave it to poor people he came across.
"So when he comes back, his dad said, 'Did [you] do business? And Guru Nanak said 'I did the best business in this world.' So that's how it started. And it's mushroomed all over the planet."
Juttla said giving 10 per cent of one's income to those in need is a core value of the Sikh faith, and something he has devoted his life to.
"Our belief is in humanity, and we are not pushing our religion or nothing. Having said that, our core belief is pray to God, work very hard and share your blessings. And every hungry mouth is God's treasury and all human beings belong to one race," Juttla said.
WATCH | How Saskatchewan is serving kindness through food-giving initiatives
The Guru Nanak Free Kitchen does not get any funding or grants from the federal, provincial or civic governments. All the funding comes from within the Regina community.
Juttla said the COVID-19 pandemic has brought more people than usual to the free kitchen due to loss of jobs. The lines were long even before then.
"A guy could come on a Mercedes or a guy could come on a donkey. We don't ask no questions. 'Here's a meal. How many do you need?' So we don't care."
Community Loaf Program
Elsewhere in Regina, the community fridge gets many much-needed donations, including fresh, organic bread made from local ingredients.
Prior to the pandemic, Saltine Baking Company in Regina donated loaves on a regular basis.
Once COVID-19 hit, the bakery found itself using an online system for sales, which meant there wasn't any extra product to donate by the end of the day.
Saltine created the Community Loaf Program as a way for customers to help donate to the community fridge. Customers can donate $5, which covers the cost of the product itself. Saltine bakers can then pay their farmers and make the bread.
"As a bread baker, first and foremost, I don't think it's fair that anyone should go without bread. We don't mean for it to be an exclusive product, but unfortunately, the way we cost it, it does end up that way," said Ashley Schmalenberg, owner of Saltine Baking Company.
"It is a loaf that can sustain people longer than a Wonder Bread. We're using local organic grain, so it's all of these nutrients that maybe they won't get from a store-bought bread that will be donated. So by us being able to [donate that], it warms our hearts."
Schmalenberg said she didn't realize just how strong the need for food donations is in the city before she went to the Regina Community Fridge to donate.
"It's a very emotional process," she said. "A lot of the loads we take, we have kids helping us unload our van who are waiting there for the food that they don't have at home. So, I feel like we can't stop now."
According to the most recent data in a report by the University of Regina, nearly 29 per cent of Saskatchewan children under the age of six live in poverty.
"It's one of those things where once you see the need, as much as we can contribute, we will continue to do that."
If you're experiencing suicidal thoughts or having a mental health crisis, help is available. For an emergency or crisis situation, call 911.
You can also contact the Saskatchewan suicide prevention line, toll-free and 24/7, by calling 1-833-456-4566, texting 45645 or chatting online.
You can contact the Regina mobile crisis services suicide line at 306-525-5333 or the Saskatoon mobile crisis line at 306-933-6200.
You can also text CONNECT to 686868 and get immediate support from a crisis responder through the Crisis Text Line, powered by Kids Help Phone.
Kids Help Phone can also be reached at 1-800-668-6868, or you can access live chat counselling at www.kidshelpphone.ca.
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