Southwestern First Nations see new funding to address critical needs during pandemic

By Colin Graf

LONDON— First Nations and groups supporting their members across Southwestern Ontario are using new federal funding in numerous ways to help get people through the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Close to $609,000 is going to Atlohsa Family Healing Services of London, Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre, with several facilities in different cities, Four Feathers Housing Cooperative of London, Chippewas of the Thames First Nation, Mnaasged Child and Family Services, Caldwell First Nation, Southern First Nation Secretariat (SFNS), and First Farms & Forests Centre for Indigenous Food.

SFNS received $25,000 to support around 205 urban post-secondary students, Executive Director Jennifer Whiteye says. Whiteye adds that although other government and First Nations funding has been announced, a lot of students were not eligible for those or the funding was simply not enough for them and their families to survive on. She explains that the Secretariat will use the new money to “contribute to students’ food security, basic health and wellness, and mental well-being” by distributing electronic gift cards.

The agency also purchased an annual subscription for a corporate Zoom account to enable post-secondary counsellors to provide regular check-ins for mental, physical, spiritual and emotional wellness for the students.

First Farms & Forests Centre for Indigenous Food Sovereignty (formerly known as True Colours Farm) is receiving $204,450 to improve access to culturally-sensitive whole foods for low income and vulnerable urban Indigenous youth, Elders and families at-risk in the Norfolk, Hamilton and Niagara regions, according to a news release from Indigenous Services Canada (ISC).

Atlohsa Family Healing Services of London will use $170,800 to further support urban First Nations people by offering “a nutritious and Indigenous-based hot meal program to children and youth on a daily basis” during the pandemic, according to the news release. The program, dubbed Mino Meals, delivers 1,482 meals throughout the city to 219 families on a weekly basis, ISC states. In addition to the meal program, funding will support access to technology to connect First Nations families to their service providers and ensure communications and planning are prioritized during the pandemic, according to ISC.

“We are pleased to have support from Indigenous Services Canada to ensure our children and youth are receiving great nutritious meals, but they are also getting exposure to healthy Indigenous-based diets and hopefully inspiring families to think about creative Indigenous-based meal planning in the future,” says Atlohsa Executive Director Raymond Deleary.

The Caldwell First Nation will use the funding to create “custom stay-at-home gardening kits,” says Economic Development Officer Kyra Cole. The kits will include raised garden beds and potting essentials, garden supplies such as gloves, shears, gardening forks, etc., soil and fertilizer and seeds of various kinds.

According to Cole, the initiative is meant to help Caldwell members with food security, mental well-being and to provide an opportunity for families who are physically distancing to have “an atmosphere of community while physically separated.”

The agencies in the London area are among  260 First Nations organizations supported to date by the federal government’s Indigenous Community Support Fund, to help address the critical needs of First Nations living off-reserve, and Indigenous peoples in urban centres across the country in the face of the pandemic, as stated in the ISC news release.

This most recent announcement brings the Indigenous Community Support Fund to $685 million in total funding that will be distributed through a combination of allocations directly to First Nations, Inuit and Métis leadership, and needs-based funding, which will extend to Indigenous communities and organizations serving First Nations living off-reserve, as well as Indigenous Peoples living in urban centres, according to the Sept. release.  The money will help “support essential services to the most vulnerable and to prevent and respond to potential COVID-19 outbreaks”.

In announcing the new money, Minister of Indigenous Services Marc Miller says the funding “is another step forward in ensuring the health and safety of Indigenous Peoples. This much needed funding will support Indigenous organizations in the London area to address their critical needs during the pandemic. Their hard work and dedication is saving lives and preventing the spread of COVID-19.”