The City of Grande Prairie has selected Helping Hands to be the coordinator in a new project that looks to address food insecurity in the swan city.
During their most recent Monday night meeting, City Council opted to approve funding in the amount of $80,000 per year, over the course of the Food Security Backbone project’s two-year pilot.
Grande Prairie Mayor Jackie Clayton explains the need for a more centralized approach to the city’s food insecurity problem comes from the lack of integration in all of the services available to those who need them.
“Over the last year and a half through conversations, we recognized that many organizations in our community are doing excellent work; however, there wasn’t an integration of all the services,” she says. “It was identified that a coordinator would be ideal to work with all the organizations so that they, first of all, have a greater output of food to support our food insecurity in our city and also so there isn’t a duplication of services.”
The Mayor adds the city’s decision to appoint Helping Hands as the coordinator for the project came after numerous conversations with potential organizations, who ultimately agreed with the city’s assessment that Helping Hands is the organization for the job.
“There was many conversations with all of the organizations to see who thought they had the capacity, and who was identified as somebody who could be a good coordinator of services,” she says. “Helping Hands is an organization that feels they have the capacity and the knowledge and experience to be that coordinator of service.”
The project is timely as well, as the holiday season quickly approaches. Clayton says while it could be a while before the project truly begins to bear fruit, having all the organizations involved is an important step in addressing hunger during the Christmas season.
“Getting that before we get into the deep cold of the winter and heading into times that are tougher for people over the holiday season, we know that this coordination of services won’t happen overnight, it’ll take some time to get up and running, but to have all the organizations at the table and having conversations about where we can find efficiencies and better output is something council is very excited about,” she says.
Following the first year of the project, Helping Hands will provide council with an update regarding improvements and efficiencies, and Mayor Clayton says she is “optimistic” the project will be a success.
