With grocery prices and food insecurity on the rise, community organizations that offer education and access to affordable, healthy food are important.
Anti-Hunger Coalition Timmins, or ACT, is a grassroots charity that organizes a number of programs and works with several other local organizations, all with the goal of eliminating hunger in the community.
“We attack food insecurity through a coordinated approach: resource development, education, being able to purchase boxes to help close that gap of your budget and what you can afford so you’re not always getting bad foods that are cheaper. We’re trying to make healthy, affordable foods more accessible,” says Kelsey MacDonnell, who has been the executive director of ACT for just over a year.
While the charity has been active in the community since 2007, it has grown considerably in the last few years thanks in no small part to rising food costs and a shortage of services that meet people’s needs. ACT now employs six full-time staff and five summer students to run the three core programs the charity offers.
The Good Food Program hosts weekly markets and delivers boxes of produce once a month to community members dealing with barriers to accessing fresh food, whether that be due to affordability, lack of transportation, illness, or old age.
“We try to reduce stigma, so anyone can come to our markets. It’s not just people who are really struggling right now, anyone is welcome. But through the market we’re able to offer sub-programming to people who are more vulnerable,” MacDonnell says. “Our doors are really open to anybody. We definitely see the increase as people are learning more about us, but of course, as grocery prices are increasing, we’re higher in demand now.”
“It’s a big variety of people who come to our market, but we do try to target more low-income people to say we’re here, we’re welcoming, we’re friendly, we’re a safe place to be, so it’s okay to come and reach out if you need help,” she says.
In March of this year, ACT moved into the former Daily Press building on Cedar Street South, sharing an office with the Timmins Food Bank and United Way. They have big plans for the new space, such as installing vertical gardens and building a commercial kitchen where they can host their Collective Cooking workshops.
The Collective Cooking program aims to help people learn cooking skills and food handling to give them confidence in the kitchen. They also distribute tip sheets that cover anything from snack ideas that kids can prepare safely by themselves, how to hide vegetables in meals for picky eaters, or how to use food bank items more effectively.
“We really try to build community and resources and stuff like that, so everything we do kind of comes with tips and tricks and that kind of stuff,” MacDonnell says.
In addition to workshops, MacDonnell hopes to rent out the kitchen space for events or family functions, from which all proceeds would go toward bolstering ACT’s other programs.
As part of the Community Gardens Program, people who wish to grow their own produce can rent a garden plot, which also grants access to tools and soil. ACT also distributes tip sheets for gardening and, this year, take-home gardening kits containing everything you need to start growing food at home.
Now that the Anti-Hunger Coalition has grown in size and support, MacDonnell hopes to continue working with other organizations such as Second Harvest, which aims to eliminate food waste across Canada.
“We’re trying to really take all those food programs and create a little community where we can help each other and see what worked and what didn’t so that we’re providing food to people who are most vulnerable in a way that has dignity, choice and respect,” MacDonnell says.
For any community members wishing to get involved, ACT welcomes any and all donations of time, money or expertise.
“If you can support us and give a little extra, we pass that on to people who can’t. If you need help, reach out. We’re here, we’re friendly, we’re not going to judge your situation, where you came from, or why you’re struggling,” she says.
“We’ve been around for 16 years but I think people have just been learning about us recently. So it’s good that we’re starting to get out there,” she says. “But if you want to pop by and say hi and see what we’re about, if there’s anything you want to do that helps bring money in for us, we’re only going to be able to grow and do more. Anyone can be involved.”
