WIIKWEMKOONG—The lowing of cattle can be heard in the background as Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Mike Mantha chats with Wiikwemkoong Agricultural Resources co-ordinator Annette Peltier-Flamand and Wiikwemkoong Food Bank co-ordinator Jamie Lynn Manitowabi about the work they are doing to enhance food security in their community.
Wiikwemkoong Agricultural Resources has been developing agricultural skills in the community in partnership with Ontario Works, bringing in cattle, chickens and developing a huge and successful community garden.
The tour starts at the cattle barn located at Wiikwemkoong Agricultural Resources’s Andrew’s Place farming operation. The small herd of cattle has been maturing nicely and will soon be ready to become food for the community.
Ms. Peltier-Flamand explains that they are hoping to be able to butcher the cattle on farm as the cost of shipping to an abattoir or finding one still open in the North is challenging. A butcher working in the new butcher shop located in Wiikwemkoong’s light industrial park is currently seeking to reinstate his inspector’s certification. “The cattle have to be under three years old in order to be able to do that,” she said.
Following a visit to the chicken operation and community garden (all of which have been covered in The Expositor in recent months), Mr. Mantha was given a tour of the Wiikwemkoong Food Bank located under the Ontario Works offices.
Freezers and refrigerators line the first room, the freezers packed with an earlier crop of chickens and the fridges packed with other perishable items. “I like a five-pound chicken myself,” said Mr. Mantha, quickly turning down the offer of one of the birds. “I’ll take it and donate it back,” he laughs.
noticing the Wiikwemkoong label on a five-pound frozen chicken at the Wiikwemkoong Food Bank.
Other rooms host a wide variety of canned and dry foodstuffs—as well as some baby supplies and toiletries. Ms. Manitowabi explains that the food bank is learning and adjusting what it offers. At first the facility packed its shelves with whatever was on offer, but after seeing too much food not being used by clients, the food bank now sticks to the foods people eat.
Mr. Mantha expressed his admiration of the operations and noted that it is in thinking outside the box that innovative solutions to food security can be found. The MPP said that he would be providing some contacts and introductions that could prove useful.
photo by Annette Peltier-Flamand
photos by Michael Erskine
