From sports bar owner to high school students, Flin Flon rallies around fire-hit food bank

Tragedy pushed the Flin Flon food bank into the back of a sports bar, but community spirit has helped the volunteer-run charity continue to operate and prepare for the future.

An accidental fire in an apartment above the Lord's Bounty Food Bank in the small Manitoba city killed a man on Sept. 13. While that was certainly the worst loss in the fire, it wasn't the only one.

The food bank lost about $1,100 worth of donated food and its location but a whirlwind of community spirit that followed has propelled the charity forward and promises to make it an even more important part of the northern city, which is 630 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg on the Saskatchewan border.

"There was very little smoke damage in the part of the building we were in, so we were very fortunate," said Dennis Hydamaka, a retired miner and co-founder of the food bank.

"During the fire the power was cut to the building and we were next door to the RCMP office and fire department. Well as soon as the fire was doused, they ran extension cords and plugged in our freezers so we would not lose content, and we didn't."

They saved meat, vegetables and homemade soup worth about $4,500 stored in all four freezers. A health inspector said the canned goods were also OK.

However, with repairs needed to the entire building, the food bank had to vacate its rented space and find a new temporary location.

"Within less than two weeks we had an offer from a little bit strange place for a food bank to operate from a sports bar!" Hydamaka said with a laugh.

Brad Burke, the owner of Burkee's Sports Lounge, had a spare space at the back of his business that he was using for storage. He offered it rent-free; they pay for utilities.

AJ's Maintenance and Supply provided a truck, a 20-foot enclosed trailer and a crew of 12 men for the move.

"They moved all our stuff in one day," Hydamaka said.

Winnipeg Harvest sent a truck full of food and volunteers to help stock the new shelves.

Health authority provides kitchen

The location is central, has a private entrance and is bigger than the old place, Hydamaka said. The only thing it doesn't have is an approved kitchen to make the soup that goes out in the hampers.

But the community fixed that problem too.

"The local health authority provided us with a kitchen where we could make our soup and we have strict rules on cooling it before we can transport it to the food bank for freezing, so we're doing okay," he said. "And also the high school has a certified kitchen, and there's a group of high school students that make soup for us."

"Support for the food bank from the day we opened until now has been just superb, just unbelievable."

The food bank started 25 years ago, when Dennis and Carol Hydamaka's daughter Tara received a call from a friend who wanted to borrow $10 because his unemployment insurance cheque was late and he had no food.

Tara was skeptical, so she looked in her friend's fridge, where she found half a jar of Cheese Whiz and nothing else.

Volunteer run

When she told her mom, Carol made up meals for the young man to last him until the cheque came. Not long after, Tara met a group of young mothers who also shared stories of how hard it was to make ends meet.

"And she brought that to my wife's attention, and my wife went to the ministerial association and talked to some of the pastors, and three of them jumped on the train," Hydamaka recalls. "One of them did research that there was enough poverty in Flin Flon to warrant having a food bank and off we went."

Since then, the food bank volunteers have gone out of their way to make people feel cared for. It's completely volunteer run and relies solely on donations.

Hampers not only include homemade soup the Lord's Bounty is also one of the few food banks that regularly provide beef and chicken to clients. There's also jam made by an octogenarian from Creighton, Sask., who's lovingly known as Mrs. Rutherford.

Unfortunately, the need for the food bank is growing. Hyadamaka said the record is 333 people fed in a single month. He expected to exceed that by more than 50 people in November.

There are lots of reasons for the increases, including high food and fuel prices and a lack of affordable housing, he said.

It's often overlooked that there are some people really struggling, even the people who areworking.- Alison Dallas, Lord's Bounty Food Bank

Food bank vice-chair Alison Dallas, the owner of a courier business, said she didn't realize the need before she started volunteering four years ago.

"There's a lot of people making really good incomes here with the mine and the schools and the hospital," she said. "It's often overlooked that there are some people really struggling, even the people who are working."

As tragic as the fire has been, it "catapulted us into even more awareness among people here," Dallas said. Donations of food, money, and help have gone up.

It's unlikely they will return to the fire-damaged building even after it is fixed.

They have been looking for a larger location for a few years now; they'd like space to provide services other than just food, Dallas said, such as teaching job interview skills and food handling.

The Rotarians and the Northern Neighbours have donated $15,000 and $13,000 respectively to help them achieve that goal. Other service groups have also helped out.

"We want our vision to be more empowering people because just giving people food is kind of a Band-Aid approach," Dallas said.