(Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW Staff)

By Ben Tompkins

Hand-in-Hand Innovation

Food Sharing Melfort receives SHA award

Jun 18, 2024 | 4:03 PM

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) was in Melfort on Tuesday to present a Hand-in-Hand Innovation Award to Food Sharing Melfort.

Originally started by healthcare workers in the community, the group focuses on ‘food rescue’ to give meals to those in need.

They also look to use that food to help people get access to healthcare services and entice them to do so.

Currently, they have a big deep freeze at the Mental Health and Addictions department of the Melfort Hospital.

There, anyone can grab frozen meals to take home to their families or just for themselves, as many times as they want.

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“The impact that this program has created is that it allows clients to connect to healthcare services. There can be lots of barriers and stigma because you have a substance use disorder, but every single one of us connects over food,” explained Pattie Draude, a registered nurse and primary care manager in Melfort, who is also the co-creator of Food Sharing Melfort.

“Providing people with the basic needs, allows them to feel safe, and allows them then to be more open to a relationship with our healthcare services.”

One of the most recognized aspects of the Food Sharing Program is its virtual no-cost approach.

Whether it’s grabbing ‘leftovers’ or foods from grocery stores and businesses that are still edible but would otherwise go to waste, or doing the same at healthcare facilities, the only thing that is required is freezer space.

With the community stepping in and donating freezers or clean leftover food, the program continues to grow.

“We’re using food that the taxpayers have already paid for,” added Draude. “We are just getting things where they need to be… the right product with the right care provider to the right client, and we’ve created a connection in our community.”

Another place this is being provided is in the Melfort Home Care facility on Burns Avenue because some seniors are having to “skip” meals due to fixed incomes and high rates of inflation.

“When we get back to the notion of what is primary health care, this is primary health care, it is taking services to the people closer to home and where they’re at. That’s what primary health care is and really there’s no better example than this program,” LeeAnn Fannon, director of primary health care in Northeast Seven (Melfort and area) and Food Sharing Melfort co-creator, told northeastNOW.

The Hand-in-Hand Innovation Award recognizes successful collaborations between multiple healthcare entities such as hospitals, clinics, community organizations, industry and/or academic institutions.

Five award winners were selected from across the province.

Since June of 2023, they have rescued 1,200 freezer meals, received 225 family-size soups from RJ’s Urban Garden Cafe, got over 1,500 pounds of food from Cindy’s Independent Grocer and given 1,200 cups of coffee.

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