Volunteers help Louisbourg legion feed those in need

Food insecurity has become a common concern these days, but it has hit home with some sad stories in Louisbourg, N.S.

In response, the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 62 is taking action to deliver healthy meals and food to people living in and around the town.

“The thing that I didn’t know before this program started was there are many men who have lost their wives, who have never cooked in their lives,” legion treasurer Eva MacKeigan told CBC’s Information Morning Cape Breton.

“They went straight from their mom’s house to their home with their wife and once the wife has passed on, we’re seeing 70, 75-year-old men who simply don’t know how to make a meal and they don’t know how to shop for a meal.”

Some people go days and even weeks without a proper meal, MacKeigan said.

MacKeigan said they took a grocery order to one community member “who on Dec. 9 had one can of Chunky soup in his cupboard that was to last him until Dec. 28 when he received his pension.”

In addition, the legion has found some children who are not attending school because they don’t have food to take for lunches or snacks.

The legion has received $200,000 from the Nova Scotia government to try to improve food security in the area.

Volunteers prepare meals and assemble packages containing easy-to-prepare meals, which are delivered every two weeks along with fresh fruit and vegetables and a few pantry essentials.

The legion also uses the funding to offer classes where adults can learn to make soup and then take home the ingredients.

They also offer classes for youths who learn to assemble healthy lunches and get take-home ingredients to make school lunches and snacks for their siblings.

Louisbourg, a fishing and tourist community, is hurting. Its only school closed in 2017, there’s no gas station and the only bank branch recently announced it would be closing.

Bob McIsaac, who recently moved back to the community to take care of a family member, said not everyone has a vehicle. He said for those who do, the cost of driving 70 kilometres round trip to Sydney to buy groceries has become too high.

He said he was glad to discover the legion’s meal delivery program.

“I don’t think everybody has access to get into town all the time … so any help that anybody can get is definitely needed,” McIsaac said.

“It’s bringing the community together, which it’s lacked in the last number of years.”

MacKeigan said the legion started the program earlier this month and already serves nearly 900 people. The majority are male.

She said anyone in need living between Hornes Road and Louisbourg — including the communities of Main-a-Dieu, Bateston, Catalone and Trout Brook Road — can contact the legion and sign up for the program.

Anyone who needs help is eligible and people’s names are kept confidential, MacKeigan said.