NACI students bring HOPE to Winnipeg

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Published on Thursday, April 21, 2016

Submitted photos. In total the HOPE group brought 457 t-shirt roll care packages to Winnipeg Harvest this spring.

By Kira Paterson

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

NACI’s HOPE group recently wrapped up their latest project. The group had been collecting donations of t-shirts, socks and toiletries from the students at NACI to make t-shirt roll care packages for the homeless in February. Twenty-three of the group members delivered some of those rolls to Winnipeg Harvest on March 22 and 20 more group members took the rest on April 12.

In total, 457 t-shirt rolls were donated for homeless Winnipeggers’ use. They also had boxes of socks, men’s underwear and hygiene items that didn’t get used in the t-shirt rolls, as well as nine large tins of infant formula that they donated. 

While the students were there, they also got a chance to help out at Winnipeg Harvest warehouse. They sorted produce and bread, bagged flour, pasta, rice and oatmeal and put together portions for food kits. “Once you got through a crate of potatoes and seeing the bottom of this massive box – it was a huge box – just seeing the bottom and thinking of how many people that fed was probably one of the highlights of the day,” said Emma Gerrard, a Grade 11 student in HOPE.

Left: Part of the group helped out by sorting through crates of potatoes and other produce. Right: Others from the group bagged flour and other dried goods into smaller portions to be put in food kits.

The group also had the chance to hear from some of the clients who use Winnipeg Harvest’s service. The clients shared their experiences with poverty and homelessness with the students. “The students were so empathetic towards the clients and some were brought to tears as they listened to the stories,” said Michelle Young, NACI teacher and HOPE group organizer. “It is so hard to imagine what some people go through in their young lives compared to how fortunate most of us are in our school and community.”

“That was really interesting,” Gerrard said about hearing the clients’ stories. “Just how they managed to rebuild their lives, that was the most interesting part of that.” The clients who spoke to the group were not only recipients of the food kits, but they also volunteered at Winnipeg Harvest to help others in situations like theirs.

The group that went in March also had the opportunity to try a “Living on Less” simulation. “They did an experiment with us... as a single mom having a certain amount of money that I got every month,” Jessica Gibson, a Grade 10 HOPE member who was on the first trip, explained. “And then you had taxes and child support and different things come and take your money from you so I’m only left with so much. Then they had us budget as if we were a single mom and try to figure out how muchmoney you need here, how much here, what’s left over. So, we were like trying to live and it was really interesting.” Gibson said the simulation was the highlight of her trip. “You’re thinking that, well I had a partner to do this with, she [a real single mother] does it all by herself, while she’s got two kids that she’s got to look after and just [the reality of it] was really, really scary.”

“This [simulation] inspired the students to not only realize how difficult budgeting is when you don’t have very much money, but that even if someone is working hard, they still might have to use a food bank to feed their family,” added Rebecca Trudeau, Winnipeg Harvest’s youth programs associate. Trudeau was the one who worked with Young to organize the visits and the different tasks that the group was given when they came.

“I think that this group did a great job to realize that the food bank stereotypes are not always what society thinks. This group saw the need in the community and reacted in a creative and inspiring way and not only ended up bonding as a group, but also provided to thousands of families in need,” commented Trudeau. 

With both visits combined, the HOPE group was able to help 4,785 families who use Winnipeg Harvest. “It was incredibly inspiring, fulfilling and rewarding to work with them all and look forward to a continued relationship,” Trudeau concluded.

Young said that these two days of volunteering were the “culmination of our ‘Empty Bowls’ project that we worked with the guidance of Winnipeg Harvest this past year.” HOPE started out this project with a chilli supper and handmade bowl sale in October and continued with the t-shirt roll drive in February. The t-shirt drive was a competition between classes and Dairy Queen donated an ice cream cake for each of the winning classes in Grades 6, 7 and 8. The Empty Bowls theme was a reminder of all the people who go hungry on a regular basis because of poverty.

Neepawa Dairy Queen donated three ice cream cakes as prizes for the Jr. High classes for the t-shirt roll drive.