Left to right, Harris Sutherland (Gold Eagle Casino), Erin Katerynych (Battlefords Food Bank), Pat Cook (SIGA), and Lillian Denton (SIGA), during Tuesday's cheque presentation to the Battlefords Food Bank. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Giving back

SIGA & Gold Eagle Casino donate $10,000 to Battlefords Food Bank to help with food insecurity

Mar 5, 2024 | 1:57 PM

There was good news for Battlefords Food Bank this week.

Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA) and the Gold Eagle Casino donated $10,000 to the Battlefords District Food and Resource Centre to support food security in the Battlefords.

Gold Eagle Casino General Manager Kelly Atcheynum said its integral to show support for the local community, where it’s needed most.

“Gold Eagle Casino is part of the Battlefords community, and it was important for us to give back and to help fill the need right now in the community for food hampers,” he said.

Harris Sutherland, Operations Manager with the Battlefords’ Gold Eagle Casino, is also glad to support the Battlefords Food Bank.

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“That’s the great [reason] why I love working with SIGA and the Gold Eagle Casino – it’s the amount of giving back we do for the community, especially with Erin [Katerynych] and the wonderful work she is doing here at the Food Bank,” he said. “A lot of people don’t realize the amount of need that is happening within the Battlefords. So with presentations like this and the wonderful work they’re doing, we love supporting everything like that. The Gold Eagle Casino is proud to be part of this community, and we look forward to doing many partnerships like this in the near future.”

Battlefords Food Bank executive director Erin Katerynych was thrilled with the support to the local Food Bank.

“This is fantastic” she said. “The $10,000 from SIGA and the Gold Eagle Casino will go really far.”

With the donation, the Food Bank will be able to provide for 780 children struggling with food insecurity through its Food for Kids Program.

“We help approximately 100 to 130 children every week throughout the school year,” Katerynych said.

She added that the Battlefords District Food and Resource Centre has no core funding, so it relies on donations and grants “to keep its doors open to serve those in need.”

“The donation from SIGA will help feed approximately 2,000 people a month,” Katerynych noted.

Pat Cook, Vice President of Corporate Affairs with SIGA, hopes the contribution to the Battlefords Food Bank will help make a difference.

She said SIGA is aware that food security is an issue across Saskatchewan right now, with the impact from inflation and the high cost of living.

In total, SIGA is donating $225,000 across all of its casino markets as part of its Community Investments Food Security Strategy this year.

“Whether it’s food banks or nutrition programs, or community schools, and different [supports] like that, we recognize the need out there, and we want to be able to support that,” Cook said.

Cook noted that SIGA supports many programs across the province.

“We operate the seven casinos and PlayNow.com in the province of Saskatchewan. Our casinos are located across the province, and we’re providing support through [food] security in all of our locations to different food banks and nutrition programs,” she said.

SIGA said, as a non-profit corporation, it has a unique revenue distribution model that reinvests all net revenue back into Saskatchewan. Casino net revenue is redistributed – 50 per cent to the First Nations Trust (which is distributed to the 74 First Nations in the province), 25 per cent to Community Development Corporations (CDCs) which reinvests the money back into local community initiatives and 25 per cent to the provincial General Revenue Fund.

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