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By Kenneth Cheung

SOCIAL ISSUES

A month of poverty in 75 minutes: Battlefords to launch immersive simulation

Dec 8, 2025 | 11:52 AM

A month of tough decisions will be compressed into a little over an hour when local agencies host a poverty simulation in North Battleford, inviting participants to experience the pressures families face as costs climb.

The event comes as food insecurity and rising living costs continue to strain families across Saskatchewan. A national food report projects grocery bills could rise by about six per cent in 2026, adding nearly $1,000 a year for a family of four. For Denis Simard, executive director of the Al Ritchie Community Association, the impact is already clear.

“Families were already having to make choices between utilities and food,” Simard said. “These changes might literally be the difference between people being able to feed themselves or not.”

He says his organization went from helping about 50 families a month before the pandemic to roughly 3,000 today, a surge he calls “unsustainable.”

At the Battlefords District Food and Resource Centre (BDFRC), more than 2,100 people received help in October alone – up from about 1,000 in April – representing roughly 11 per cent of the region’s population.

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Against that backdrop, Dallas Odgers, a health educator with the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) helping lead The Poverty Simulation Exercise through the Roots of Hope program, says the event is meant to offer a close-up look at the daily pressures facing low-income households.

“It’s a facilitated experience where we role play how those dealing with complex financial situations navigate real world situations like food insecurity, challenges with transportation, bill payments, childcare, healthcare access, and housing,” Odgers said.

Participants are assigned fictional family profiles and must make decisions under strict time limits. Each 15-minute segment represents one week in a household’s life, with the full simulation lasting about 75 minutes.

“At the end of the experience, there’s going to be a lot of time for reflection and debriefing,” he said.

Odgers said the simulation helps people understand how both real and perceived barriers affect daily decisions.

“One thing when you go through this experience, you’re going to get a good idea of what real challenges are,” he said.

“A good example would be if a person requires some support from another organization, and they legitimately just don’t have transportation to get there, or maybe enough finances to hire transportation to get there, or maybe it doesn’t line up with the public transportation available.”

He says stigma can be just as limiting.

“Because there might be some felt stigma around accessing the food bank, it might influence people to not seek out the support that is in place,” he said.

Read more – ‘There is no weakness in asking for help’: Former food bank client, now volunteer shares her story

The Poverty Simulation Exercise will take place Jan. 21, 2026, from 10 a.m. to noon, followed by a lunch and debrief. The event is being organized by Roots of Hope, in partnership with Rivers West District, Battlefords Early Intervention Program (ECIP), the Battlefords Immigration and Resource Centre, BGC Battlefords and KidsFirst Battlefords.

Organizers are seeking 80 participants to take on family roles and 20 volunteers to act as service providers such as banks, utility offices and childcare centres. Registration will open in early January through any of the partner organizations.

Odgers says the experience is especially aimed at people who work directly with families or help shape community support.

“People who are in a provider role, such as service providers, educators, healthcare professionals, nonprofits, community leaders, they’re all great people to be at this type of event to better understand some of those complexities around the decisions that they have to make on a daily basis,” he said.

Anyone interested in participating can contact the partner organizations. Further event details will be released later in December.

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Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com