Emergency worker challenge starts Nipawin food drive

Police and EMS have already raised a lot of money.

Dustin Baker, Jessica Brost and Michael Zich of Northeast EMS with tables full of food that their business will be donating to the Nipawin Food Bank. Photo supplied. jpg, NO

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With a challenge between the Nipawin RCMP and Northeast EMS, the food bank in town is getting a major boost and a planned food drive has not even happened yet.

A Pandemic Response committee struck by the town of Nipawin agreed to Mayor Rennie Harper’s suggestion that there needed to be a food drive to help families in need during the COVID 19 pandemic, and police and EMS quickly stepped up.

Since both groups already face a significant amount of time dealing with people and can’t isolate as much as they want, they challenged each other to raise money instead.

EMS was the clear winner and ‘gets all the bragging rights’, said Jessica Brost, head of Northeast EMS.

They raised $895 while the RCMP raised $615.

Brost says her company will also be donating an additional $500 to the Oasis Centre, to help with their increased needs.

The Nipawin Apostolic Church is organizing the actual food drive on May 13, using strict social distancing guidelines

“Teams will be made up of people living in the same household. Each team will be assigned a map with a designated area of Nipawin, in order to ensure we cover all the streets of Nipawin on the same day,” said Pastor Jordan Gadsby. “They will collect the donations that are left on any front steps as they canvas the town.”

There is no specific goal as to tonnage or number of items, they just want to collect as much perishable food as possible.

The food bank is often looking for shampoo, deodorant and toothbrushes, as well as items like canned vegetables, brown beans, juice, canned fruit cups or apple sauce, canned meat or snack items for children.

Collection teams will drop items off in a “drop zone” at the sanitization facility, set up by the Apostolic Church. The sanitization team will take items from there, sanitize, and prepare them for transportation to the Food Bank.

The food drive will start a 1:00 pm on May 13.