(Meyers Ranch Beef/Facebook)

By Jaryn Vecchio

Helping Hand

P.A. organizations coming together to help First Nations University students during pandemic

Jan 11, 2022 | 3:00 PM

Students with the First Nations University of Canada in Prince Albert are getting a helping hand during the pandemic.

Since November 2021, the school’s northern campus student association has been handing out food hampers.

Krysta Hatfield, president of the student association, told paNOW a common trend before the COVID-19 pandemic was having everyone sit down and eat breakfast together. Due to classes being held virtually, this tradition has been halted.

The food was paid for through their tuition fee, so the cost of breakfast never came out of the person’s wallet.

Hatfield said the student association started having concerns about whether many could afford to miss out on this meal, five days a week.

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“We don’t make a lot of money as students, how are you feeding your kids, are you getting breakfast. When we don’t see someone on Zoom in class, we’re wondering if there’s a crisis.”

Instead of waiting for someone to reach out for help, the association decided they would start making food hampers. Elders at the campus also gave their blessings for the initiative.

The first week saw them use around 500 pounds of food, which they bought at local grocery stores and from the Hutterite colony near Shellbrook, to create 50 baskets.

Hatfield quickly found out their concerns were justified as some were considering going to the P.A. Food Bank for help.

To help with the costs as the student association doesn’t receive 100 per cent of the food costs included in each student’s tuition, places like Save-On-Foods, Real Canadian Superstore, and Walmart have been providing discounts.

According to Hatfield, Walmart in particular has gone above and beyond to help out.

“When we would pull up, they would have a pallet of our 500 pounds of food for the week and we would load it in the truck and away we go.”

One big aspect of the hampers is ensuring students get access to healthy meals. Whether it be chicken or beef, meat was included in each.

Helping out has been Meyers Ranch Beef who’ve provided the association with a cow and a half worth of meat at a discounted rate.

“If we can help someone put food on their table then that makes us feel good about going out in -40 C and feeding the cattle,” said Jamie Meyers who’s with the locally owned company.

Hatfield added the organization has also provided them different organs from the cow as using the entire animal is part of Indigenous culture.

Moving forward, the association will be handing out between 10 to 20 hampers a week which will include a meat pack and a gift card to the grocery store.

For now, this will happen until the end of the semester.

“It takes a village to get through university, whatever your barriers are, and it’s so nice that we’re not only garnering that respect in the community but we’re making these strong, kinship relationships,” added Hatfield.

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Jaryn.Vecchio@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow