Isabel Mosseler
Tribune
When Franco-Cité teacher Brigitte Pépin and her students, Emma Rivet, Alexie Bélanger, Jordyn Lagassie, Layla Quesnel and a few others arrived at the West Nipissing Food Bank with a collection of food on May 2nd, they brought renewed hope to the food bank administration. The school does a massive community food drive that shores up the shelves at the food bank for several months every fall, and Christmastime donations are plentiful as well. But, according to food bank chair Don Clendenning, the spring is now a difficult time at the food bank as demand has increased and the need for a concerted springtime effort has become increasingly apparent. Food stocks start to become depleted as early as February, he laments.
The Franco-Cité group led by Pépin is called Jeunes en action – Youth in Action. They have a mission to instill community activism and awareness in a broad and inclusive manner. Pépin explains that over the 10 months of the school year, the group chooses a socially important cause each month and devotes whatever efforts are necessary to bring awareness to the school and wider community. “We raise awareness or raise funds and we help people in need,” she sums up.
In April, the group chose the food bank, to the delight of Vice-Chair Terry Clendenning, who called the effort both timely and inspirational. The secondary school students heard that the food bank was having difficulty in the spring, so they stepped up. Pépin explains, “That’s why our main focus was the food bank in April (…) We made announcements in the morning, and through [social media] (…) Some people in the community brought some food, but most of it is from students.”
The students are well aware of the need in the community, citing food inflation and other challenges. Their focus is diverse, but also very local and community oriented, choosing issues that affect local people. Examples of their previous efforts include Christmas food baskets in December and raising awareness on Indigenous issues. “For May we are [doing] the Red Dress project,” in memory of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Pépin notes. This project began the week preceding May 5, Red Dress Day, with art displayed in the school and red dresses hung in the trees around school grounds. Pépin also mentions the Moosehide Campaign, when moose hide pins are given out to raise awareness of violence against people in the LGBTQ+ community. Student Emma Rivet spoke to an effort to collect children’s clothing to send to remote northern communities. They also engaged in knitting and crocheting red scarves for AIDS awareness, to be hung on trees and lampposts for people to take at will. They went all out for Orange Shirt Day, to remind people that Every Child Matters.
And when April rolled around, the food bank became the focus. Don and Terry Clendenning were delighted not only to receive the much-needed food items, but also to commend the students for being socially conscious activists. They hope this will expand into a larger effort involving all the secondary schools. Don says the situation remains critical. “Our storeroom is half empty and we have to bring items from Cache Bay [their alternate storage facility] but that’s probably half empty. We are giving away that much, and the demand is picking up steadily (…) We used to be at 50 to 70 people coming through the door every two weeks, and now we’re averaging about 140,” he describes. Terry pipes in, “If you add the individuals at home, we are almost at 300, when you add up the [partners] and the kids.”
Terry Clendenning is trying to establish a springtime campaign, what she is temporarily calling a “Spring Fling”. She’s been consulting with the owners of Brandon & Ashley’s No Frills in Sturgeon Falls, and reaching out to the local secondary schools, and has been receiving great encouragement from the grocery outlets, as well as from Franco-Cité. “We spoke to Brandon at No Frills, and he is gung ho! (…) I approached all three high schools, and Franco is also gung ho, so excited,” she relates. É.s.p. Nipissing Ouest has also expressed interest in helping out, she notes.
