Making sandwiches a chance to make a difference

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This article was published 24/04/2020 (2301 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Like many Winnipeggers, Henry Rempel wanted to do something to help people impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. But what?

“I wanted to help, but I’m not supposed to be going outside my home very much,” said Rempel, 64, a retired teacher.

Then he heard 1JustCity, an organization that supports three drop-in community centres in Winnipeg’s core neighbourhoods (West Broadway Community Services, Oak Table at St. Augustine United Church and St. Matthews Maryland Community Ministry), was seeking sandwiches for people experiencing food insecurity.

Rempel put the word out and now about a dozen seniors from River East Church, a Mennonite Brethren congregation in North Kildonan, are busy making bag lunches for the organization.

“It’s a way for us to feel like we’re doing something,” Rempel said of how he not only makes sandwiches, but also picks them up from group members and delivers the goods to 1JustCity’s St. Matthews Maryland Community Ministry location.

Eleanor Martens, who normally volunteers at Siloam Mission and now finds herself “stuck at home,” quickly signed up. (She usually makes egg, ham and cheese or tuna sandwiches.)

“There are lots of us feeling the same frustration,” said the 73-year-old former nurse manager. “It seemed like a simple thing to do.

“I can’t solve the big problems, but I can do something for people in my community.”

It is a stance Bev Hiebert, 69, understands.

“I felt stuck at home and couldn’t do anything,” said the former director of sales for Ten Thousand Villages Canada.

Making tuna sandwiches for the bag lunches “makes me feel I am a very small part of something larger,” Hiebert said, adding it feels good since she can’t go anywhere else to volunteer these days. “It’s a win-win.”

Altogether, the group contributes between roughly 130 sandwiches a week, along with fruit, a juice box and a granola bar. Rempel and his daughter, Jamila, drives around each Tuesday morning to pick up the food — from a safe social distance.

“Some people leave it on the front steps, others come to the door to put it there when I ring the bell,” he said, noting as seniors they want to be really careful about not catching the novel coronavirus.

Josh Ward, community facilitator at St. Matthews Maryland Community Ministry, is grateful for the help.

Before the pandemic closed the ministry’s programs, it was providing drop-in meals for about 75 people in the West End, four days a week. He said the number has now doubled, as “people on the edge” have lost jobs and need assistance.

“It’s an amazing effort,” Ward said, noting the dozen or so people from River East Church are among the 40 to 50 Winnipeggers making bag lunches for 1JustCity each week.

The lunches are passed out at the door of the building by staff wearing masks, gowns and goggles, Ward said. Recipients line up at safe social distances.

“It gives us a chance to connect briefly,” said Ward, whose home church is St. Andrews River Heights United Church. “Relationships are at the core of what we are trying to do.”

Lunches are handed out from 1 p.m. to about 3:30 p.m., he said, “or until the food runs out.” Non-perishable food items and other groceries are also available in emergency food kits for families in need.

Currently, more sandwich makers aren’t needed, 1Justcity executive director Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud said, but financial donations are welcome.

Along with using the donations to buy food in bulk to share with community residents, she said it needs funds to pay staff who were hired to replace the volunteers who no longer can serve.

“Many of our volunteers were seniors, and they can no longer help because of the pandemic,” she said.

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