(YWCA/Facebook)

By Glenn Hicks

relief

Local groups secure Cameco COVID-19 relief funding

May 3, 2020 | 8:00 AM

Food and craft supplies will be among the purchases of two key Prince Albert social service agencies after they secured some of the million dollars in funding from the newly created Cameco COVID-19 Relief Fund. The funds are aimed at groups offering help to communities impacted by the pandemic and a total of 67 applications across the province were successful.

The P.A. Metis Women’s Association will receive $25,000 for either food hampers or food gift cards.

“With this funding, we were targeting helping a hundred families,” director Noreen McBride told paNOW. “People are under a lot of stress and don’t know whether they’ll have enough money for rent and bills and will they have enough left to buy food?”

McBride said their grant would allow them to offer food security for about a month to those most in need.

Ensuring people can eat at this particularly difficult time was also part of the successful funding request by the YWCA Prince Albert. Food hampers will be bought from the $14,000 they receive, but there are other important items on their list as well.

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Cleaning kits will be put together for the public who can’t afford their own. And there will also be an allocation of funding for craft supplies for those people in their shelter who have nowhere to go.

“We know how stressful it is to stay at home for days on end, it can drive you crazy, and that’s with a lot of things to do” executive director Donna Brooks said. “I have an iPhone, a computer, I have all sorts of different things I can do, but a lot of our clients don’t have those options.”

Brooks added the Cameco funding was important as they were having to apply for grants from other funding sources because the COVID-19 situation has brought extra financial challenges.

“It’s costing more money for staffing because we have staff who have to be off and isolate, even if they just have a sniffle. There are so many different pressures related to COVID.”

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow