MINDEMOYA—As many as 930 Manitoulin families will get a chance at a better Christmas this year, thanks to the support of Island residents through Manitoulin Family Resources’ annual Christmas Basket program.
“It’s incredible how giving people are here. In some areas last year there were concerns about not having enough food, but that’s never a problem here on Manitoulin Island,” says Denise Leblanc, executive programs assistant at Manitoulin Family Resources (MFR).
The Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB) has released a report that outlines food bank usage statistics within the province from April 2017 to March 2018. Children and senior citizens are the highest users of food banks. The number of seniors using food banks has increased by 10 percent, a figure that is three times higher than the growth of senior citizens as a whole demographic. One third of food bank users are children. In all, 501,590 people have made nearly 2.94 million visits to food banks in Ontario in that timeframe.
“In vulnerable populations, finances can be very tight and it can be hard for them to generate more money,” says MFR acting executive director Lisa Lanktree. She says the problem of food insecurity—lacking reliable access to enough healthy, affordable food—looks very different than stereotypes may suggest, and the problem is widespread.
“Lots of families across the province are seeking food from food banks. A lot of people imagine a homeless guy downtown who goes to a soup kitchen and gets a food basket. That’s not how the system works; there is a lot of food going directly to children,” she says.
Enter: MFR’s Christmas Basket program.
“We provide families referred to us with all the things they need for Christmas dinner and enough food to last about a week, because during that time we’re closed so we’re not able to open up to give out food,” says Ms. Lanktree, describing the program that has been running for over 30 years.
“The most important thing to acknowledge is thank you to our community. They are doing an amazing job remembering us and supporting us,” she says.
Families can be referred to the Manitoulin Food Bank through resources such as doctors, churches and other agencies. The clients are all assigned a number to provide anonymity and the referring organization will pick up the basket and redistribute it to the family.
These Christmas baskets consist of far more than kitchen basics. MFR is part of a network of food banks that help to coordinate and distribute contents. Last week, Ms. Lanktree went to Sudbury to pick up toys for children, courtesy of the Sudbury Lions Club and its annual telethon.
“There was a volunteer team of 50 people packing toys into bags separated by family, placed into our van and we brought them back to Manitoulin,” says Ms. Lanktree, praising the organized and well-staffed event. “That is the neatest thing ever; I was so inspired by that.”
Ms. Lanktree says the baskets can also include winter clothing necessities like wool mittens and other things the community has donated.
“With this network of food banks and volunteers, no kid has to go without on Christmas morning,” says Ms. Lanktree. “Look at all these people working together to get a gift to a child.”
Managing close to a thousand food hampers and ensuring they reach their proper destinations is no easy task.
“It’s all co-ordinated by the greatest team of volunteers. It’s amazing how many come out and work together and they’re happy; they’re socializing and contributing,” says Ms. Lanktree.
Even the workspace is provided free of charge.
“We have a partnership with the Mindemoya Missionary Church where we do the packing, and get lots of volunteers from there. The packing of all baskets and pickup all happens out of their space because our agencies don’t have that space. This is a very big production,” says Ms. Lanktree.
She says demand for the food bank increases at this time of year but conversely, they tend to also receive more volunteer support. However, she says, the food bank can always benefit from more volunteer support, especially at these busy times. After all, the work volunteers do here has a major impact.
“A big benefit is that no family has to feel at Christmastime that they’re going without. And that can be really devastating for some families. Everyone wants the best for their children and family, and if they’re in a position where that’s hard to provide it can be devastating,” says Ms. Lanktree.
Ellen Ferguson teaches a Grade 2/3 split class at Central Manitoulin Public School, across the street from the Mindemoya Missionary Church. She has found a unique way of supporting the food bank that involves her whole class.
“Developing character is really important at our school,” she says. “At Christmastime, you also want to develop the giving versus receiving concept and develop a sense of community kindness through helping at the food bank.”
Parents often give gifts to their children’s teachers at this time of year, and Ms. Ferguson says their generosity is quite remarkable in giving gifts.
“I started asking, in lieu of a gift for myself, to send five dollars. We use that money to go purchase items for food bank hampers,” says Ms. Ferguson.
Students in her class go to Foodland in Mindemoya to purchase foods that would suit a Christmas basket. Ms. Ferguson says the young students often want to buy things they like to eat such as apples and bananas, but they soon learn that only certain types of foods can be given to help families in need due to the lack of refrigeration. She also says this initiative connects to the students’ learning.
“They also develop math skills. We link groups of five into multiplication as they track the five-dollar bills that come in. At the grocery store we use mental math and rounding skills when they have to track how much money they have,” Ms. Ferguson says. “We also connect it to part of our Grade 3 curriculum that talks about processed versus fresh foods.”
Perhaps more than anything, it teaches students about the lives they have and the amount that is required to sustain a family.
“It opens their eyes that not everybody is as fortunate as other people, and they feel really good about trying to help make a difference,” says Ms. Ferguson.
Supporting the food bank goes beyond simply making food or cash donations or even volunteering. MFR operates Treasures Thrift Shop, a second-hand store in Mindemoya that sells gently used items for under five dollars. All proceeds go to fund the store’s operating costs and the food bank. The thrift store accepts donations of items and money, both of which support MFR as a whole. The organization is entirely funded through these initiatives; Ms. Lanktree says there it receives no funding from government ministries.
“There is never a cutoff date for sending in donations,” says Ms. Lanktree. She adds that there are a number of positive resources to improve food security on the Island, such as Noojmowin Teg’s Good Food Box program, Kristin Bickell’s programs focusing on child poverty, food security and gardening, and the Manitoulin Secondary School living locker run by Dawn Noble McCann, offering students food resources and a kitchenette to make food at school.
“Some teenagers in that environment can have such intense need. Normally they’re counting on the grown-ups of the world to provide for them, but sometimes that’s not the case,” says Ms. Lanktree.
On the week of December 17, volunteers will descend upon the Mindemoya Missionary Church for several days of food packing. Ms. Lanktree says she plans to find a way to honour the volunteers in a major way next year.
“They are the lifeblood of the food bank, Christmas hamper program and thrift store,” she says. “This is a deeply caring action. It’s a moving thing that’s going on on our Island.”
She adds that the volunteer effort, coupled with the amount of donations the organization receives, is indicative of the kinds of people that live on this Island.
“This pulls the community together and shows the beauty of Manitoulin. We are a community who care about each other.”
