Tracey Gilbert feels like she’s getting back to her roots after taking over as manager of the Minden Community Food Centre (MCFC).

Replacing the recently-retired Jean Munroe, Gilbert has spent the past couple of weeks learning just how big a role MCFC plays in the community. She started her new position March 9. A new assistant manager, Stephanie Butchart, started March 16, replacing the also-retired Lynette Gray.

It’s a return to frontline service for Gilbert, who has spent the past 15 years working in publishing, with Patient News in Haliburton. Before that, she was a PSW supporting the elderly in homes across the County.

“Helping people has been part of my plan right from the get-go. That’s my passion and what I enjoy,” she said. “Because I had kids, I needed more of a 9-5 job… but now that they’re grown, I’m really excited to take on this challenge and do whatever needs to be done to help people in our community.”

MCFC isn’t completely foreign to Gilbert – she assisted with social media promotion last summer and has volunteered with the holiday hamper program for years. At the community level, she’s one of the helpers involved with the annual Canada Day fishing derby in Minden.

Gilbert said she already feels the weight of her new job. Since 2019, MCFC has seen demand for service soar, with the food bank more than doubling its clientele over the past six years. With the current economic uncertainty, demand is only climbing, she said.

“At minimum, we’re seeing between five to 10 new clients per month, which really adds up over the course of a year. Through January and February, we served an average of 420 people each month,” Gilbert said. As of April 2025, MCFC was serving an average of 352 people per month.

Responding to the increased need, MCFC has upped the amount of food it gives out to people. For years, they provided four days’ worth of food every month. That was then changed to four days of food every three weeks but now, Gilbert said they’re handing out seven days of food every three weeks.

As a result, the organization’s budget for 2026 has spiked – up to $356,000 from $313,000, a 14 per cent increase. Since MCFC doesn’t receive any form of steady funding from municipal, provincial or federal governments, the bulk of that is sourced from the community.

Dollo’s Foodland, Easton’s Valu-Mart and Coneybeare’s butcher shop regularly donate food, with money brought in through annual fundraisers such as Jump in the Lake, which Gilbert confirmed will return this spring.

Olympian event

A new fundraiser has been scheduled next month, April 11, at the Minden Curling Club. It features a three-course meal prepared by Aaron Walker, co-owner of McKeck’s Restaurant, and a conversation with Canadian sports broadcaster Scott Russell and Olympic figure skating bronze medalist Tracy Wilson. There will be a silent auction, raffle and 50/50 draw. There’s seating for 70 people with tickets $125 per person. Gilbert said there are only 20 tickets left. She’s hoping it brings in $8,000 to $10,000.

Gilbert said she wants to establish a partnership with Archie Stouffer Elementary School to ensure all students have access to nutritious lunches.

For anyone in need of assistance, Gilbert says people will always be welcome at MCFC.

“There is no income threshold for service – we’re not turning anyone away. We’re here to support, not to judge. We are here to give our clients the most warm, welcoming experience possible so they can feed themselves and their families,” she said.

To register, people need to present photo ID, disclose their address and how many people live within their household. For more information, visit www.mindencommunityfoodcentre.ca.

A decision by the County of Haliburton – on whether or not to partially fund SIRCH’s School’s Cool program – will officially be made April 8 after the March 11 council meeting was cancelled due to weather conditions.

Director of community outreach, Sue Tiffin, is recommending that a request for funding be approved.

Tiffin said the County has a community health and well-being levy to support funding of non-jurisdictional, but essential, community needs, as they arise.

The School’s Cool program organized by SIRCH Community Services did not receive federal funding this year, and executive director Gena Robertson told The Highlander earlier this month she thought it would not run in 2026.

But Tiffin said SIRCH staff had worked to raise partial funding from donors for the program to continue, but require up to $7,500 to be fully-funded. It’s estimated a single six-week program for 20 children costs $30,000.

“Funding for the School’s Cool program would be provided from the community health and well-being fund included in the community safety and well-being department’s operational budget,” Tiffin said.

The County of Haliburton developed the 0.5 per cent levy in the 2026 budget. Tiffin said it is to enable the County to set aside contingency funds within the levy, ensuring the community can remain resilient in the face of external health crises or non-jurisdictional challenges.

Tiffin said, “by setting aside funds specifically for programs and supports, the reserve improves fiscal stability, enables timely responses to emerging social determinants of health and well-being, and reduces the need for ad hoc reallocations or emergency measures.”

She stressed that under the new program, the County does not transition into a program provider, but facilitates and supports initiatives by other service providers and groups.

“Potential program supports and initiatives will vary by year and in duration. Levy funds can support expanding existing programs, supplement programs, and respond to urgent community or organization and agency needs.”

SIRCH Community Services has run the School’s Cool program in Haliburton County for the past 25 years. It was designed to address a school readiness gap and prepare children for school before kindergarten begins. The program helps children build language fluency; practical emotional regulation; strengthen peer interaction; develop independence, and engage in structured, outcome-linked play.

Families pay $120 in fees.

The program is annually subsidized by the federal Community Action Program for Children (CAPC) grant; however, in 2026, while the CAPC funding received by SIRCH was approved, it no longer funds early learning.

Since announcing the program won’t run, SIRCH has looked for alternative sources of funding for the program and are now just $7,500 shy, Tiffin said.

Robertson told The Highlander that in 2025, CIBC pledged a corporate donation for this year earmarked for children, so they were able to direct it to School’s Cool. The donors raised half of the funds needed, and the County is expected to approve the $7,500 next month.

Tiffin said “should County council approve funding the remaining financial gap for the School’s Cool program, SIRCH Community Services would commit to reporting back to the County’s community safety and well-being committee on the program’s outcomes.”

By Adam Frisk Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

For turtles that call Haliburton Highlands home, survival is a numbers game with increasingly deadly odds.

According to researchers with the Turtle Guardians, a program of The Land Between charity, a single snapping turtle may have to cross a roadway up to 16 times in a single migration season.

“You can’t redirect a turtle,” Leora Berman, founder and chief operating officer of The Land Between and Turtle Guardians, said in an interview last week. “This is the problem. It’s an enormous problem for turtles. And for drivers, but really for turtles.”

The organization has been quietly mapping and studying turtle habitats since 2010, and has recently reached a major milestone by completing what is believed to be the longest road study of its kind in North America, Berman said.

“We’re beginning to use that data to look at hot spots, like where are the worst spots for turtles,” she said.

The Turtle Guardians identified 970 potential crossing sites on rural routes across the Highlands, 97 of those in Haliburton County alone. However, identifying a problem site is easier than fixing it, Berman said. After accounting for driveways and technical constraints, researchers found that only five per cent of these sites are currently feasible for highpriority infrastructure.

“There are no turtles left in the cities because of roads and habitat loss,” she said. “Here, we are working our butts off to make sure our great-great-grandchildren can still see them.”

The organization has been testing a “pioneering” ecopassage fencing system at four priority locations. Berman explained that while past industrial attempts, like those on

Hwy. 69, have faced failures due to frost heave and maintenance issues, this new local design focuses on durability and simplicity. “Hwy. 69 is a classic example where millions of dollars were spent on this fencing system with areas where animals could get off the road,” she said. “But there were so many failures in it that now there are hardly any animals left in that whole zone.”

The design uses repurposed materials like heavy-duty steel barrels and a “skateboard ramp” concept that can be entirely backfilled, ensuring small animals like snakes and frogs don’t get trapped on the road. Another design concept features a folding fence system for steep areas that can be deployed in the spring and removed for the winter.

The project is awaiting $10,000 in engineering testing and patent approval. Once it gets the green light, the design could one day be adopted as a standard by the Ministry of Transportation and municipal road departments.

Berman noted that long-time residents report a total absence of the massive snapping turtles that once dominated the waterways.

“Mortality is going up, not down,” she said. “If you lose 20 per cent of the turtles in your area, they’ll be extinct within 20 years.”

As the summer season approaches, Turtle Guardians is seeking volunteers for road patrols and support for the excavation and incubation program, now the largest in Ontario. Residents are also encouraged to call the hotline at 705-854-2888 to report injured or nesting turtles.

“Adults are essential for the next generations,” Berman said. “Without breeding adults, you’re done.”

Haliburton Youth Unlimited had a successful second annual pancake fundraiser March 7 at Lakeside Church.

More than 100 community members attended to help them raise money to support their spring programs.

Weekly, Youth Unlimited provides free after school programs for youth Grades 4-12 at the Bridge Youth Centre in Haliburton.

Community director Leanne Young said more than 80 youth attend regularly, “benefitting from the free programming and positive community and activities.”

For more information about programs, or how to donate to support programming, go to www.yfc.ca/haliburtonhighlands/ or contact them at haliburton@kawyu.ca