In an effort to address food insecurity among Morley residents, Stoney Nation member Tasina Pope teamed up with a Calgary organization to help feed her community.
“It just started from a local grassroots movement that I'm hoping will transpire into something for our community, ” Pope said. “There was a lot of vocal concerns I was hearing from elders and community members expressing there wasn't enough assistance available. ”
Pope said the high unemployment rate is a big factor affecting food security on the reserve.
“We need to do something for our people. It's not right for elders and children to go to bed hungry, ” she said.
Starting in early Dec. 2017, Pope would head into the city to collect donated food items from LeftOvers - an organization which receives items daily from participating businesses and redirects it to organizations in need. Once Pope would load up on the donated produce and bread she would drive about 40 minutes back to Morley and deliver the items door-to-door for families in need.
Pope said it got to the point where there was so much to deliver, she decided to wait at her home in Morley with the products while families and individuals stopped by for the items they needed.
“I was waiting until midnight to distribute, ” Pope said, adding Nation members from the other Stoney reserves would collect food items from her as well.
Pope even upgraded her car to a van to accommodate the amount of food being brought in.
Lourdes Juan, of LeftOvers Calgary, said the organization was happy to team up with the Stoney Nation community.
“Food (in)security is pretty prevalent where she lives and she just wanted to help out her community, ” Juan said. “She's a really strong leader and (when) she came to reach out to us it was a really good fit. ”
LeftOvers, which first began six years ago, touts having diverted 4,000 pounds of food per week.
The food donation operation in Morley is being passed on to the Iyahrhe Nakoda Food Bank Society, but more delivery volunteers are still needed from either the Cochrane or Morley areas.
“The routes are about 25 to 45 minutes. It's not too bad out of your day and it definitely helps out the first nations in Stoney Nakoda, ” Juan said.
