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Nunavut's food bank and soup kitchen homeless no more?

Couch-surfing organization seeking funds for permanent home

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Nunavut's food bank and Iqaluit's soup kitchen are one step closer to realizing their dream of having their own home.

The Niksiit committee, a group of city councillors and volunteers in charge of distributing funding from the National Homelessness Initiative, will soon ask city council to hand over about $450,000 to the two programs for the community's neediest residents.

The funding comes from a federal program to fight homelessness, not the city's own budget. The city council and federal government will have to approve the committee's recommendation before money starts to flow.

Capt. Ron McLean, a volunteer with the soup kitchen, said the yet-unconfirmed money will allow the groups to buy a house of their own.

McLean said he didn't want to reveal the location where the two would merge forces, fearing that someone else might buy it.

"It'll be in the downtown area where it needs to be seen," McLean said. "It'll be where the need is most."

Soup kitchen volunteers have struggled to keep the program going for years. Organizations like the Qikiqtani Inuit Association have rescued the soup kitchen several times, giving them free space in the dome building across from the Northmart store.

People get free meals at House 1041, near the Royal Canadian Legion, but soup kitchen staff don't know when their free tenancy from the Qikiqtaaluk Corp. will end.

Besides the comfort of owning a reliable home, McLean expects that the new permanent location will allow the soup kitchen to raise more money.

He said funding agencies often overlook the soup kitchen because they're afraid the program will peter out.

A permanent home will show backers that the soup kitchen is here to stay, McLean said.

"We have no intentions of folding," McLean said. "[But] if you have a permanent location, you look more stable, more established, and more organizations will step up and help out."

The permanent home will help the soup kitchen to offer better, fresher food because volunteers will have a kitchen and refrigerator on-site, according to McLean.

McLean also envisions the soup kitchen going beyond its current mandate and offering drop-in facilities, including a computer lab with free courses.

In light of the ambitious projects, McLean said the soup kitchen needs even more cash from city hall. The $450,000 figures falls $200,000 short of the soup kitchen and food bank's original request.

So, McLean planned to meet Thursday, Dec. 9 with Niksiit committee members to thank them for their support, but also request a further $50,000 to make sure the program stays in place.

The soup kitchen program is expected to relocate by Feb. 2005, if council approves the committee recommendation.

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