Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During the last government we passed legislation called the Donation of Food Act. This is progressive legislation which allows commercial establishments to donate food for distribution by a food bank while not incurring any liability.
During the election campaign and subsequently in dealing with issues of families in need, the need for a larger-scale food bank in Hay River has come into focus. We need volunteers, corporate sponsorship and, certainly, buy-in from local food outlets. We have a soup kitchen in Hay River for which we’re thankful, with a small core group of volunteers who have fed many people during their tenure there. We, thankfully, have a new building for our soup kitchen and a new location, but it is small and there is not room there for storage of any significant amount of food.
In Yellowknife we know that the Yellowknife Food Rescue Group has saved thousands of pounds of food from the local landfill. This food has, in turn, helped and supported families that were in need.
As I tell my kids, it says “best before” not “rotten after” on the labels, and I believe that there is much good food that could be salvaged and could meet the need of people who are hungry. You would not think so in this day and age, but I know for a fact that there are people who send their children to school in Hay River with no lunch and I know that there are challenges for some of these families in providing healthy food choices for their children.
I am proposing that my colleague from Hay River North and I organize a meeting in Hay River to ask people to come attend, volunteer input, those who would like to be involved in having a larger scale food bank established in Hay River. We’ll invite the retailers as well.
I would also like to at this time say that I would like to invite Mrs. Ruby Trudel, who was the spearhead of the Food Rescue Program here in Yellowknife, to come to Hay River as well. We’ll fly her down there and hopefully she’ll give us some inspiration of the amazing things you can do when you rescue food and redistribute it to people in need.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
