By Thia James

Share-A-Meal may live on with new name, management

Apr 1, 2015 | 6:32 AM

The final hot meal was expected to be served at the Prince Albert Share-A-Meal Food Bank on Tuesday, but another program in the community has decided to step in to try to keep the program going.

P.A. Community Meals, a program spun out of Fresh Start Ministries, is taking over the operation of the hot meal program at the food bank. Its managers are hoping to have the program back up and running by mid-April.

“We were hoping to not have any loss in service, but at this point in time, we have no funding,” said Rory Swenson with P.A. Community Meals.

The program has not yet been able to secure corporate funding to purchase the meals, but with the fiscal year for businesses ending on March 31, that may change. It has approached the provincial government, and is required to send in a business plan, along with a letter.

For the Prince Albert Share-A-Meal Food Bank, the decision to separate itself from the hot meal program is “bittersweet.” That was the word used by the food bank’s co-manager, Wes Clark, on Tuesday morning.

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“I know that it has to happen,” Clark said, and paused. “But we had to make those changes.”

The reason the food bank made the decision to cease offering the Share-A-Meal program is capacity. Clark said it couldn’t run it alone anymore.

“Two major food programs, that’s really the bottom line,” he said.

The Share-A-Meal program under the food bank faced similar difficulties when it came to securing funding. “It’s very difficult to get the community buy in on that,” Clark said. The food bank received a bit of funding for food, but not for operations or overhead for either program, he said.

Last October, when the food bank’s managers first started to discuss discontinuing the program, they began to look for a partner that could help out. 

P.A. Community Meals expressed its interest in continuing the program.

Swenson said its plan was in the works since December when P.A. Community Meals found out the Share-A-Meal was closing its doors. The program operates independently of Fresh Start Ministries, which has plans to run its own hot meal program through God’s Opportunity to Assist (GOTA). 

The program operated by P.A. Community Meals will not bear the name Share-A-Meal, but it will be called Prince Albert Community Meals. And the Prince Albert Share-A-Meal Food Bank will keep “Share-A-Meal” in its name, but Clark said this is the least of their worries.

When the hot meal program is running again, it will operate out of the food bank’s kitchen, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., for the time being.

“The food bank has offered their kitchen and their facilities,” Swenson said. “But at this point in time, we don’t have any funding for the food.”

P.A. Community Meals has approached the City of Prince Albert in regards to a permanent location for the hot meal program. It hasn’t, however, approached the City for funding.

Over the years, use of the program has been steady, but it’s busier during the spring and fall. Clark attributed this to people coming to Prince Albert from outside of the city looking to better their lives.

Its clients have mainly been adult males.

For Clark, it’s important that the hot meal program continue because the Share-A-Meal program has been a gathering place. Among people living in poverty, they can face social isolation.

As well, there are homeless individuals who use the program as well, he said.

The food bank will also contribute commercial food items it receives to the hot meal program. Clark said the food bank would also assist “a little bit” with other food for the program.

“I mean the Share-A-Meal is important too and we’ve always felt that way … We haven’t abandoned it. It’s not abandoned. But we just can’t run it directly anymore. We just don’t have the capacity to do so.”

And the desire among those involved in P.A. Community Meals to help was in part driven by its involvement with Fresh Start Ministries.

“We believe that people deserve a good quality meal, hopefully at least once a day.”

To contact Swenson, please call him at 306-961-1628 or email him at roryswenson@sasktel.net.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames