By Kayla Bruch

Food bank hampers will now hold wild meat

Jan 24, 2015 | 7:44 AM

The freezer at the Prince Albert Share-A-Meal Food Bank has been stocked with wild meat. 

FSIN and the Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC) partnered up to donate elk meat from two animals to the Share-A-Meal food bank in Prince Albert.

“[The FSIN is] hoping to provide some kind of…positive thing that’s going to our urban people. A lot of our urban people do use the food bank daily and it’s not just first nation people its non-first nations,” said FSIN second vice chief, Bobby Cameron.

Kerry Ramsdell, co-manager of the food bank said she was shocked and thankful when she learned the organizations were dropping off their donation on Jan. 23. Ramsdell said the majority of the meat donated will be going into the hampers and not towards the cooking of hot meals.

“We had no idea we were getting this donation today at all, it’s great because there are some people that do like the wild meat, so it’ll be a great help towards the hampers besides what we do have already,” she said.

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People who rely on the food bank are always surprised to get meat in their hamper, said Ramsdell.

“Lately it’s been smokies, wieners; we’ve gotten beef, like just hamburger before so this’ll be a nice change,” she said.

Hunting is really a “win, win situation,” according to Cameron. It allows their people to exercise their treaty right to hunt, while giving back to the community.

“We go out on the land and we harvest our animals and we do the skinning and gutting. Then we take the animals to be butchered and then we bring it to the food banks,” he said. “In doing so we provide the meat to our people off and on reserve and right now at this time of the year were focusing on the urban settings in Saskatchewan.”

One of the vice chiefs of the PAGC, Brain Hardlotte said hunters get together and go hunting for  animals such as caribou and moose. Hardlotte said these are usually called community hunts and the food they gather goes into a community freezer where people who really need help can access it.

Besides hunting in individual communities, Hardlotte wants people to think about supporting Prince Albert as a whole.

“I also want to encourage other hunters that are out there to come and donate their wild meat to the food bank of Prince Albert,” he said.

The elk meat which Cameron, Hardlotte and helper Leon Thomas brought in came from areas around Northern Saskatchewan as well as Alberta.

“It’s wild meat off the land and it’s the traditional way of life that for thousands of years our Indian people have survived off the land,” said Cameron.

The FSIN and the PAGC are planning to drop of meat annually at Christmas time or in the month of January. Cameron said they know whatever amount of meat they can donate will be “fully-appreciated and well-used.”

kbruch@panow.com

On Twitter: @KaylaBruch1