THUNDER BAY - Three community organizations will continue to offer unique programming aimed at creating gender equality in the community with the help of a generous grant.
The Thunder Bay Community Foundation participated in the Pilot Fund for Gender Equality in Canada, which is a collaboration between Community Foundations of Canada and the Equity Fund supported by the federal government.
Through this participation the Thunder Bay Community Foundation has granted $35,000 to Beendigen, Elizabeth Fry of Northwestern Ontario, and Roots to Harvest to fund programming for women.
“We really believe in building a more equitable community and building a community for everybody,” said Alexandra Calderon, executive director of the Thunder Bay Community Foundation. “We really look forward to being able to fund specific projects in Thunder Bay to advance gender equality. We feel the three we have chosen really represent some of the amazing work organizations are doing across the city.”
Roots to Harvest, which is receiving $15,000, will be using the money to extend its Culture Kitchen project, which began last year through a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
“The funding we have from the Community Foundation is vital to actually being able to run the Culture Kitchen again,” said Erin Beagle, Roots to Harvest executive director.
“It was such a successful program and we wanted to run it and continue it and build on the momentum. We have other funding in place, but we didn’t have anything in place this year. This was a last minute funding opportunity that came up and the women and the program as you see it now wouldn’t have happened without it.”
The Culture Kitchen provides newcomer and refugee women an opportunity to learn cooking in a commercial and catering setting. Participants receive a safe food handling certificate and also learn English skills with the help of interpreters.
Mona Elmahdy of Egypt came to Canada three years ago and she started the Culture Kitchen program two weeks ago.
“I joined them to learn new stuff,” she said. “We know about how to handle food and health and we will be able to take certificate for food handling at the end of the program. We learn new food to me from the Canadian culture or from other cultures. I enjoy this program.”
Elmahdy said she has already taken away so much from the program and looks forward to learning more about Canadian culture.
“I wanted to meet new people and I like to know about Canadian kitchen and the culture of food here,” she said. “It’s not different in cooking, but there is some stuff different.”
Beendigen received $13,450 to be used to hold Anishinabek kwe ji-nii-mi-yek, or Women Come and Dance.
This will be a series of workshops teaching women how to make ribbon skirts and pants throughout March and will end with a community feast and celebration at the end of the month.
“It’s important to Beendigen because as women, we want to empower women,” said Kathleen Sawdo, human resources manager with Beendigen. “In the process of making ribbon skirts or ribbon pants, it’s a healing journey with a group of people. It’s also owning and celebrating our bodies as women and the power we carry as Anishnawbe women.”
The Elizabeth Fry Society of Northwestern Ontario received $6,550 to host a health and wellness fair in the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre for women, as well as a keynote speaker to discuss gender equality.
“The idea behind this is to really educate the women on the landscape of services that exist in the community before we sent them out into the community,” said Jennifer McKeown, development and communications coordinator for the Elizabeth Fry Society of Northwestern Ontario. “There are a lot of barriers post-release that people don’t tend to think about. Even transportation.”
