By Angela Brown

Inside the Chamber

Non-profits hope for council’s support

Feb 12, 2019 | 2:08 PM

Two local non-profits feeling the crunch from increased demand for their services hope the City of North Battleford will be able to offer some support.

Representatives from the Battlefords District Food and Resource Centre and Empty Stocking Fund and the Battlefords and Area Sexual Assault Centre appeared at council Monday requesting community assistance grants.

The requests were already in the city’s 2019 budget for consideration but councillors haven’t made a decision on whether to grant the funding or not.

Erin Katerynych, executive director of the Battlefords District Food and Resource Centre and Empty Stocking Fund, requested a $6,450 community grant for the local food bank to help cover the property tax costs for its facility located on 101 Street in North Battleford.

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She said since the organization has no core funding it “relies heavily on our community for support and grants.”

The charity operates the year-round food bank in addition to the Christmas campaign, as part of its work. In total it runs eight different programs to serve the community, including a free income tax preparation service for low-income households.

“Our aim is to assist those affected by poverty in the Battlefords,” Katerynych said.

Over the fiscal year, the food bank serves an average of 2,300 people a month.

As a new initiative, the local food bank received a request from Food Banks Saskatchewan to become a Food Bank Hub, to also serve smaller surrounding food banks in the area, especially the Northern food banks. Katerynych said the plan was for the local food bank to store the food products in its basement until other food banks can pick up the product. Katerynych said the local organization was previously awarded $98,148 from Food Banks Canada to help purchase a freight elevator it can use at the site to transport food products for storage.

In her presentation Amber Stewart, the executive director of the Battlefords and Area Sexual Assault Centre, requested a grant of $10,000. The funds would go toward the organization’s prevention-education programming, which educates youth about pursuing healthy relationships.

She said the funding would provide supplies for groups, honorariums for elders, and transportation services, to name a few.

“We don’t really get core funding for what is needed to provide these programs,” Stewart said.

Stewart said the organization saw a dramatic increase in those seeking services. There was a 75 per cent increase in requests for prevention-education in its 2018-19 fiscal year, and a 15 per cent increase in one-on-one counselling sessions.

“We had a substantial growth in our 2017-18 year and that is still growing,” she added.

Mayor Ryan Bater said council will decide on the funding requests at a future date.

“There are a lot of organizations that do a lot of good work in our city; there’s a lot of need out there,” Bater said following the meeting. “We heard from two of them tonight and they are asking for taxpayers’ dollars.”

He said council’s responsibility is to request information so it knows what services are being delivered, who is benefitting from them, and to discern the organizations’ financial situation.

Bater added council is still considering these funding requests.

“We will make a decision at our next council meeting,” he said.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow