Food Donations
This is a bit of a rare blog in which I’ll focus more on my capacity as a chef / business owner and not simply a resident & candidate, but I’m genuinely not writing about this to pat myself on the back. I’ve had a professional relationship with The Mustard Seed (TMS) here since I started at Co-op Place in 2021. But my relationship to aid organizations goes back to my time in Toronto with Daily Bread Food Bank, Feed It Forward, Second Harvest, and The STOP Community Food Center – all of which I arranged regular donations to at various points in my career there. Especially during the early stages of COVID, building community through food was an important and poignant activity my teams could participate in. When Shopify closed their Toronto office permanently, we donated thousands of dollars of food, packaging, snacks, and chemicals to Second Harvest, who were assembling boxed meals for up to 10,000 people daily. It was staggering to see that level of need, but inspiring to see people rising to the challenge.
The MS here, while considerably smaller in scale, has no shortage of that same passion and selfless drive to simply help people. I’ve since formed friendships with a few of the key people in that organization, and they are wonderful humans as well as being tireless advocates for the most marginalized members of our community. At Hometown, we have arranged a weekly pickup for items that are still very much fine from a quality and safety standpoint, but that we can’t or won’t use. This is mostly items like cut fruit, cooked potatoes, and leftovers like sauces and soups. If I had more freezer space, it’s likely that we’d find uses for some of these items, but I’m genuinely proud to assist by donating them instead. Mark, Gene, Lynette, and the entire team are genuinely good humans who want to help. I understand that TMS as an organization has a few controversies with their operating model, but the people working at the end user stage preparing meals and keeping the organization moving in whatever way it can are gems!
The Root Cellar also needs to be in the conversation, but their service model is different. I found early on in my relationship with them that what we were donating from Co-op Place fit better with TMS, which was a suggestion by a Root Cellar staff member I had worked with in another life. Much of what restaurants donate doesn’t work well for the more “retail” style setup the Root Cellar uses. It was an honour to be a guest chef for one of their recent garden dinners, and I learned a bit more about the various community initiatives that they’re involved in. Many of the donations to both come from large commercial operations like grocery stores and broadline suppliers, which is amazing to see. I think that every restaurant, caterer, and hospitality venue should also be donating to organizations like The Mustard Seed or Root Cellar. If more companies donated regularly, they might be able divert more funding toward other initiatives by spending less on staple food items.
Instead – and this is where I put my “candidate” hat back on – we’ve seen the community petition against the work TMS does, ultimately preventing the proposed Champion Center from operating in 2022, and further preventing them from continuing serving those in need from the Allowance Avenue location in Feb. 2025. As a result, there are 275 people without CIC mailboxes, 100 people who listed the Allowance Avenue location as an address on government ID, and at least 100 meals daily not being served from that location. Medicine Hat remains the only city of its size in Alberta without a 24/7 shelter. TMS’ only remaining shelter houses 30 people, and while the staff are trying very hard to feed their clients using a limited model, it is a constant struggle. There is no easy answer to any of this, and I have related blogs addressing homelessness, addiction, and mental health (found here: https://www.adamkoch.ca/news). What I can say in the context of this blog is that The Mustard Seed does amazing, much needed work, and needs to expand instead of being stifled when they attempt to meet the growing need within our community.
For my part, I’ll continue to support the good work they do however possible, including by donating food to them weekly. I genuinely hope that we can collectively move forward from a place of dignity and compassion. At the base level, feeding and sheltering people should be non-negotiable. It shouldn’t be an election issue or something we debate the necessity of in social media comments. There are very few groups in this space willing to do the hard work, and I’m willing to support anyone who is, even if they’re not the “perfect” model. We cannot possibly call ourselves a society if the people struggling the most are not supported.
https://www.mhfoodbank.com/volunteer
Excited to see Gene on Monday,
— Adam
