The annual Salvation Army and Yellowknife Co-op Thanksgiving Food Drive took place at the Co-op Saturday.
Maj. Tony Brushett, the newly appointed executive director for the Salvation Army in Yellowknife, was helping to oversee the charitable initiative.
“We’ve done 400 $25 hamper bags for people to purchase today, for us to give out to the vulnerable population,” Brushett said.
The event is expected to generate about $10,000 worth of food, he added.
The hampers will be distributed to around 400 families who would otherwise struggle to secure food.
“It’s been a wonderful partnership for several years now,” Brushett said of the collaboration with the Co-op.
The Salvation Army does not discriminate when it comes to providing aid, he noted.
“We’re not going to ask you what your income is or where you live or anything like that. If you’re struggling for food… we’ll give you a hamper to get you through a few days,” Brushett assured.
The food drive operates on donations from the public. People could purchase a $25 bag of non-perishable items at the cash register and drop it into a large container. These bags are then transported to the Salvation Army, where perishable items are added before distribution.
Brushett has been part of similar drives in Ontario and Labrador over the last 15 years. Despite the variations in execution, the goal remains the same: to provide aid to those in need.
Jeff Kincaid, business development manager with the Co-op, said his store is pleased to combine efforts with the Salvation Army, as has happened for decades.
“I believe it’s been 20-plus years of us doing this food drive, partnered with the Salvation Army,” he said. “So each year we do the Salvation Army food drive around Thanksgiving to help people with food security issues, to kind of get through those holidays and be able to provide a nice meal during that time.”
Brushett had quite the initiation shortly after arriving in Yellowknife.
“We thought we were just walking into a normal social services unit for the Salvation Army,” Brushett said, referring to the food bank, community meals and homeless shelter he was expecting to oversee. However, his role quickly expanded to include crisis management.
“From day two, when we started here, we were called out to assist with the Behchoko evacuation,” he recalled.
This was followed by a brief return to the office before he was tasked with evacuating more than a hundred clients to the south.
“We arranged that and got them down there and spent the next three weeks with them in Calgary,” he added.
Upon their return to Yellowknife, the Salvation Army staff were immediately immersed in preparations for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Brushett has already noticed some stark differences between life in the NWT capital and larger cities like Ottawa, where he has previously served.
“Yellowknife is an absolutely beautiful city. We call it home already,” he said.
However, he acknowledged that major events, such as evacuations, highlight the city’s isolation.
Despite these challenges, Brushett remains optimistic about his term. He humorously recalled how his predecessor warned him about potential floods and fires during his five-year term.
“That ended up being in my first six weeks, not my first five years,” he said.’
Yet he chooses to view these experiences positively as they allowed him to meet many key figures in the community much faster than usual.
Looking ahead, he said he’s planning to have more structured meetings with political figures and department heads to further the mission of the Salvation Army in Yellowknife.