Nourishing Wellness with Melissa Mullis

The Porch welcomes Melissa Mullis from the Root Cellar Food and Wellness Hub. She speaks with Lynnette about the role the Root Cellar has in providing supports for our community. The affordability crisis has effected many people in our community and there are supports for long term and short term food insecurity. The link to the Root Cellar website is https://www.mhfoodbank.com

Transcript

0:00

in 2019, we were feeding about 935 people, and now we've gone to over 4000 people. And it's that that group of middle class people, it's that group of seniors and students that is really, you know, we're we're seeing a lot more people. So we're seeing such a diverse group of people for sure. This episode of Bring Back the Porch, brought to you by Bernie Leahy, River Street Realty. Let's get you home. Hi, and welcome back to the porch. My name is Lynnette Schneider, and I'm very happy to be joined by Melissa Mullis from Root Cellar Food and Wellness Hub. Welcome to the porch. Hi. Thank you for having me. I, know that you guys have been super busy. November is kind of where you have your big, push to try to get food into the root cellar. And you just finished your food drive. How did that. Go? It was so good. We got just over 300,000 pounds of food. It was such a heartwarming day. I, I love that day. Every year, the two days that we have, with the world team, it is, heartwarming. And you get to see how excited all the businesses are. And it was a really great day. The, the root cellar does more than just provide food, though. It provides, wellness. And it it, supports many members of our community. I want to talk about when I go to your website, the thing that I loved about it was like, it's like a cup of sugar for your neighbor. And here on the porch, we consider ourselves. We have neighborly conversations. So I think that's a great way to sort of say, like, you guys are part of our community, but you're also helping our community. What what kind of people come to the root cellar for help? I always say we we serve three different types of people, so we serve, people who are on a fixed income. People are an age. People aren't disability. People who have an income. Our seniors, that they just can't change. So we bring those people and we feed them. We don't ask a bunch of questions. We try and connect them to as many services as we can. And then on the other side, we have a ton of more. Our blue collar families, people that can typically stay above the poverty line. But something happens, you know, a big expense or some sort of emergency, and we have to help them for a couple months, and then we have our kind of our middle group of people. That is the group that we really target our programs towards. We really want, we feel like there's a lot of room for change. So there's, you know, people who are in active addiction, mental health crisis, people who, you know, are in generational poverty. In 2019, we were feeding about 935 people, and now we've gone to over 4000 people. And it's that that that group of middle class people, it's that group of seniors and students that is really, you know, we're we're seeing a lot more people. So we're we're seeing such a diverse group of people for sure. Do you think part of it is that you're better known, like people know that you're there to help them so that, they're coming to you for help? I think that's part of it. I think it's also we're we're in a cost of living crisis right now. So, you know, there's a lot more people needing help. And, and so I'm, I'm grateful that we are well known and people know that we're there and that we're stable. The, the food and wellness, hug the center itself where people go, has what's called a stable pantry. Can you explain to our audience what what constitutes a stable pantry? Yeah. For sure. So we we have, 13 items that we purchased with donor dollars, and those are always in stock items. Those are items that that we purchased to to ensure that when people come in that they do feel that there is stability. So, things like rice and tuna and pasta and, peanut butter and things like that, those are always on ourselves. We also purchase ground beef, and as well we purchase, milk and eggs as well too. So those are items that people can always count on. There is a list of wants instead of needs. What are some of the things that typically get kind of overlooked that you need at at the at the food bank? What people always ask me, you know, what's better? What's better to do is to give cash or to give food. When people give cash, it gives us the ability to buy those things that we need. And we have a better buying power because we're buying in bulk. When people donate those kind of extra items, it gives people variety. So it gives people cereal. We we can't buy cereal. It's much too expensive. It gives people the ability to have cookies and crackers and different things. So, you know, it is nice for people to be able to have more of a robust shop as opposed to just kind of those core items. And if you if you went to the grocery store and you got just those core items every, every time, it might be a little bit boring. So it's nice to be able to do that. And the cool thing is, is we have a shopping area so people can pick and choose the items that work for them, which is really amazing. Let's let's talk about that for a second, because I'm sure that's one of the things that's really hard with food insecurity is the idea that, okay, well, I'm going to go and get some help and am I am I just going to get a plastic box with ten items in it and walk away where I know that my my family likes pasta, and I have somebody in my family who doesn't like rice. Like, what does that mean to them? To give them that, kind of self, confidence to go in and do a shop, you know, at the wellness. Yeah, absolutely. So long term, our organization has been a shopping organization. And when we moved into this location, it was very important that we got back there. So through Covid, we did have to give out hampers. And we learned a lot of lessons through that. So we actually give out, 30 pounds less per person by offering them the opportunity to shop, which is great. But the number one thing, you know, you know, the numbers going down is great, but the number one thing is, is dignity. And so when people come in, they have the opportunity to shop like they would in a grocery store. And I think it's so important. It's so important for people's mental health. It's so important for their sense of worth. And, you know, people, we've heard so much good feedback from the people that we serve that it's just a it's just a better option. And we reduce a lot of waste in the community by doing so. I want to just take a second and, and say, let's say I am somebody who's hungry and I am looking. I can't make my dollars stretch far enough, and I want to become a part of the root cellar. What's that process look like? Is it a phone call? Is it? I come to the office. How? How do people get in touch with you? To get help? For sure. Yeah. So it starts with a phone call. So people phone, they leave a message and we have a team of people that call them back. So we have two social workers that work there and then also two staff members that work in our emergency food pantry. So they get a call back the first time somebody comes to access us. We really don't ask a lot of questions. We bring them and we feed them, and then we have a conversation. There's no blanket approach to care at the root cellar, so we don't believe that. You know, you fitting in some sort of a box means that you are worthy of food or not. So everybody's situation is individual. And so it's based on the goals that they set with our social workers. And, our goal is to get them out of out of accessing it and support them, connect them to as many community services as we can. How many services do you guys, work with? Oh, gosh. If there is a community service or a government service, we are working with them. We are, the girls, in the emergency food pantry. Those social workers are really, dedicated to making sure that if there's a a barrier that somebody is facing, that they're there, they're helping. We have a connection with, H-e-b where we can directly, make bank appointments for people and support them with their finances. We have, you know, access to, you know, support with community housing and, and support and things like that. So really, we're we're a navigation hub. We're a place where, you know, you can come for help with food, but we're going to help you with a lot more than just food. There was a recent article, on CBC about, how nice it is to get a donation of beef, but that that necessarily comes at a cost for a food bank anywhere in Alberta. Really? But here, the root cellar has got a little bit of a superpower. We do. Haha. Yeah, actually, when the fellow reached out to me from, from CBC to to talk about that and, you know, he was talking about what a big problem it was for other food banks. We were lucky enough that it's not a big problem. So we have amazing, cattle ranchers throughout our community, who donate regularly. And, our Kinsmen Club actually have committed to, to paying for the processing and have done so for a very long time. So, they, they have, you know, seen the value in that program and seeing the value it was giving out fresh beef and knowing what a cost that is. And they've committed to supporting us. So we are very lucky. Shout out to the kinsman. Thanks for that. Yeah. I noticed also when going through the website that there's sort of an area that, not everybody that comes to the, to the root cellar is necessarily, might they might be a newcomer to Canada. They might not, might have moved here from somewhere else. And there's, a need for maybe something that's more culturally sensitive as far as food goes for people. What types of items would that kind of be? So halal meat is the biggest one. We we don't get that donated regularly. It's only donated to us by, you know, different grocery stores that have it. So that's something that, you know, if somebody was looking to make a specific donation, I'll also say to, that like items like gluten free, specialty diet items, those are really important as well. And something cool I really wanted to mention, was that the Lions Club of Medicine had actually just donated US funds to buy a translator, so we are very excited. It translates like 400 languages. So, that's going to be really, really, big deal for the intake team to be able to, communicate well with people. So we're really excited about that. Right now. They're just doing some sort of Pictionary game, and it's not as easy as you think. So yeah. Exactly, exactly. And especially if the person that's, trying to communicate is maybe feeling a little, humbled by the experience and, and doesn't want to ask for too much or comes from a culture where they would never have had to have asked. Yeah, it does create a barrier. So that's awesome. Yeah, we're very excited for that donation. We're really excited. You know, when when companies like this I mean, I just posted today, we had a big donation from Acciona Energy today. You know, companies like, like that or organizations like the Lions Cobra. And they're asking specifically like, what do you need? What can we do for you? That that has been really helpful. So that translator is something that we're very excited about. Do you know how many of your clients are, say, under 18? Is there a lot of children that access the root cellar? Yeah, absolutely. There's not a lot of children independently that are accessing both through families. Yeah, it is a very large number of children that were accessing. So I would think that if, if there's children involved there's probably snacks for school and that kind of thing, that would also be something you'd be looking for. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And especially through the summer months and, and through those kind of times where, school's out. I mean, we were just talking before this about this, this like, having those, those snack items on hand for the families is really, really important. And you're still doing the Brown bag lunch program. You talk about that a little bit. Yeah. Currently we're feeding just over 1500 children a day. So we feed, that many kids, across all three districts. So public Catholic and Prairie rose, Prairie Rose is a little bit different. They come and pick up lunch items and the other schools are we make lunch fresh every day. So, we have about 20 volunteers that come every single morning to our kitchen and kindly make lunches. And it is the best volunteer opportunity if people are looking for a place to go, because it's a really good bucket filler. Let's talk about your volunteers and what they mean for the root cellar and how they kind of are that, they're sort of do some of the heavy lifting for you in many ways, because you need you need persons. How do if somebody wants to get involved and volunteer, what kind of opportunities are there and how do they get in touch with you guys for sure. Yeah. So we have about 240 active volunteers, people who just give, you know, kindly of their time. We could not do what we do with our volunteers. We have a volunteer who goes in the freezer every day and sorts the meat like he is integral to what we do. So we're just we're really grateful for them. There's tons of different volunteer jobs, like I said, making lunches. There's opportunities for sports teams to come in for people to come to do tours, and then and then give back with an activity. There's also, you know, we need stocking the shelves. We need third party event events. Our race for hunger event requires over 100 volunteers. We need a lot of help with that. So, yeah, if people want to take to get involved, they just contact Morgan. She's our volunteer coordinator at volunteer at MH food bank.com. Awesome. We do have something coming up because there's always something coming up. Yeah, it's called, Giving Tuesday. Can you kind of educate our audience a little bit about what is Giving Tuesday? Giving Tuesday is the day after Cyber Monday. And then Black Friday is on the Friday, Cyber Monday. And then it goes giving Tuesday and is a day where, you know, people are, you know, encouraged to give to their favorite charity. And so it's, it's a way, you can go on to kind of, the website of your favorite charity and donate that day. It's a big giving day for us, for sure. And so what are you doing? So people can give or is they phoning in or are they all giving off? We will. Yeah. People can can come in. People can give on our website. People can donate through E-transfer at donate at MH food Bank. Com, lots of different ways. We'll take any form of payment. Excellent. Now we do. We are coming up to the holiday season, and, I'm sure you're getting ready for Christmas. What are what is going on at the root cellar for your clients for Christmas? How do you handle that? Yeah. So we work really, really hard to get all of our families in before, before Christmas. We do close over. Christmas is a nice break for the staff. And people are very well supported through the holidays. So it gives us a little bit of a chance to reset. So we we get everybody in before we do night shops with different companies that come in and help people get through. So all of our families are through right before Christmas and then, booked in kind of for when we get back and then throughout the holidays, if there's emergencies, you know, where people are needing support. We do give out a list of, of a hampers that we give to different, agencies and organizations throughout the community. So, we'll be posting that, and people can still get help throughout the holidays through that avenue. So would that be like a case, for instance, if, somebody maybe experienced, like, a house fire and now they're living in a hotel and they have four kids and they need diapers and they need all these other things. Is that where you would step in? Yeah. For sure. I mean, there's there's lots of, there's all the community resources, you know, can can get support from us and we like I said, you know, the community housing has it has, hampers and the women's shelter in lots of different places in the community. And then if they if they need us, they just phone. Yeah. So what's your number one thing on your wish list that you wish you had more of today? Cereal. Cereal? Cereal is, is so expensive. It's not something that we can put on the purchase list just because we, we're feeding so many people, and we really want to stretch our dollars as far as we can, but it's a great meal if mom and dad aren't, you know, doing well or not functioning or not home, that kids can can get some nutrition by themselves. So I think that, cereal is such an important donation. So it it's always something that we asked. All right, well, you heard it here on the porch. The, root cellar needs cereal. Yeah. So, get some boxes and get them out to you. Now, if people have food to donate, do they have to come to the root cellar or is there other places they can drop food off that? Yeah. Every single grocery store has a bin at their door that they can, donate food to as well. And we pick those up every day. And then, you know, our warehouse is open Monday through Friday from 830 till four. Melissa, thank you so much for coming on the porch and talking to us. I hope you will come back when you are getting ready for your race. We'll see if we can get you, at least 100 volunteers. That's amazing. Thank you for having me. Great. Thank you, thank you. For.