Minden Community Food Centre chairman, Don Veno, asked Minden Hills council Feb. 9 for additional financial support, “as we prepare for a challenging 2023.”

In asking for a $10,000 grant, he said the centre provided food and necessities for more than 2,600 people in 2022. Of that, nearly 40 per cent were children under the age of 12 and more than 20 per cent were between the ages of 65 and 95.

He noted Food Bank Canada had reported an average 35 per cent increase in usage over the past two years.

Locally, “the total demand in need drastically increased in the fourth quarter of the year and we anticipate that increase to continue by approximately over 30 per cent into 2023,” Veno added. He said a decision by Loblaws to remove its price freeze on No Name products will impact shoppers at ValuMart in Minden, and Todd’s Independent in Haliburton. Veno added they are seeing food prices far greater than the advertised eight per cent rate of inflation, more like 15 per cent in 2022 with another 20 per cent jump expected for 2023.

“This is simply unmanageable,” Veno said.

Their Christmas hamper project, their 28th, was the most expensive and most subscribed to date. More than 500 people were serviced, 187 children, who also received toys. It cost the centre $24,000, with an even greater figure anticipated for this coming December. The 2021 program cost about $20,000.

“Families are unable to sustain the cost of food locally as well as the cost of living. Economists predict interest rates will continue to rise, as will inflation, through 2023 before levelling off. We are just now starting to feel the impact. And as families and especially our elderly community, are trying to sustain the rising costs, it’s simply nearly impossible to manage without assistance,” Veno said.

In the meantime, the organization has made costly investments, including new freezers and a new generator system, required to ensure the safety of the food supply, that could be upwards of $80,000. There was also an unexpected $8,000 cost for the lift. The food bank pays its landlord and will spend between $12,000 and $15,000 on its community garden project.

Coun. Lisa Schell asked what the township usually gives, and director of community services, Craig Belfry, said they waive rental of the community centre for the Christmas hamper program, equivalent to about $2,000. He said they traditionally also give the centre $3,000-a-year.

Schell said she’s been a councillor for 16 years and didn’t think the financial contribution had changed.

Coun. Pam Sayne acknowledged the need for food security, saying without it there is stress and an impact on mental health. She added if the township did increase its support, it did not mean the community should stop donating.

Coun. Shirley Johannessen said the food bank could investigate other revenue sources, as well, such as road tolls, collection boxes, contacting the lake associations, doing more bottle drives, soliciting media coverage and using social media.

Veno said, “it’s true we need to get out there a little more” and it was part of the board’s plan for this year.

The chair also invited councillors to come for a food bank day to see the operation. Mayor Bob Carter commented it was worth seeing, “how important an institution this is to our community.”

The food centre ask has been referred to ongoing budget discussions.

Horticulturalists want more money

Members of the Minden and District Horticultural Society (MDHS) – president Connie Walker, Karen Shirley and Carolyn Park – spoke to council’s Jan. 26 meeting, also seeking more money.

Walker asked council for $3,000 for 2023, up from $2,000. She said the MDHS spent nearly $3,000 last year on the town gardens and $2,000, “doesn’t cover current costs and we expect a significant shortfall next year.”

Walker outlined a number of other concerns. She said while summer students water plants, they often don’t start until June and leave before September. It means plants are dying when it would be nice to keep them until Thanksgiving weekend for tourists.

Walker added they would like to return the flower boxes to the bridge. She said the MDHS is committed to getting them, putting them in, and maintaining them, but need township permission. She said she knew there was a concern about blocking views to traffic but they could lower them.

Walker said they would like to freshen the gazebo in the village green and put up minilights. They want to know when the brick pavers will be fixed, since they are a safety risk with potential liability for the town. It is in the proposed 2023 budget. Walker added they would like to have trees pruned, benches or outside chairs, and an ashtray so cigarette butts are not strewn about. They have also found memorial plaques buried in garden beds. They have refreshed them and want to find a permanent home in the Village Green.

Sayne thanked the group for its volunteer hours and did not think they were “asking for the moon.” This item was also coming back.

A series of small photographs are attached to the inside stair railings at Nazar Fratsovir and Olha Shcherban’s home in Carnarvon.

There is one of Olha in her wedding dress with her brother. Others are from the couple’s time in Poland, the Czech Republic, and home in Ukraine with family and friends.

The pictures depict other lives as the two settle into a new one. Their stay is being sponsored by Bill and Ginger Kulas.

Nazar and Olha arrived at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport Dec. 13, 2022 and are a little over two months into their incarnation as new Canadians.

“It’s a big change,” says Olha, sipping tea and eating an oatmeal and raisin cookie, courtesy of Ginger. But she adds, “there are people helping us, and it’s easier because we have relatives here. We are happy here.”

“Big family. It’s cool,” adds Nazar.

Nazar is the son of Bill’s distant cousin, Ivan, who remains in Ukraine. When Nazar and Olha expressed an interest in coming to Canada in April 2022, Bill and Ginger discussed the prospect of sponsoring the young couple. It wasn’t much of a discussion. They looked at each other and declared “absolutely.”

With the assistance of MP Jamie Schmale’s office, they began to put the wheels in motion to bring Nazar and Olha to the shores of 12 Mile Lake. One of the big things was finding them a place to live and the couple is now comfortably ensconced in an A-frame just up the road from the Kulas family. The first two weeks leading up to Christmas were busy as they needed social insurance numbers, health cards, a post office box, phones, internet and a bank account.

The young couple had moved for work to the Czech Republic only a month before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Olha recalls her brother, who was living with them at the time, coming in to wake them up with the news. They were in disbelief. They constantly watched the news as their family and friends were still in their home country. They contemplated going back but were told men were being sent to military stations that were woefully short of weapons. They realized sending Nazar into that situation would not be helpful to them or their country.

They speak with family and friends daily and describe the conditions in Ukraine. Olha says, “there is no electricity for the most part of the day and it’s cold.” Nazar says it is now -15C and more snow is falling. Their friends and relatives stock up on water when the power is on. There are food shortages in the shops. Nazar lost his best friend in the war and constantly worries about his dad and 14-year-old brother.

Asked how they cope, Nazar and Olha find each other’s hands on the kitchen table. Bill says they have a strong Orthodox belief, and each other.

They both also have work, Nazar in building and Olha at a bakery. Olha speaks good English and Nazar is learning. Olha is teaching him. He is working with only English speakers all day long. Bill said Nazar’s new language is vastly improved. When they drive and approach big snowbanks, Nazar pronounces the “all clear.”

Ginger said when she first met Bill, his family spoke Ukrainian and she vowed to carry on the culture’s traditions. Bill said they have always kept in touch with family in Ukraine, including sending packages.

However, “there’s never been a face-to-face meeting until Dec. 13 of last year. The last time a family member met face-to-face with a family member from Ukraine was 1913 – 109 years ago.”

From applying for their visa, to being sponsored by Bill and Ginger, Olha said the process went fast for them. And since they had moved countries before, it has not been a huge culture shock. “It was easy to get used to because people are very friendly here and everyone wants to help.”

“Bill and I are just super people,” Ginger chimes in with a laugh, while Nazar and Olha say Bill reminds them of Santa Claus.

“They are the best,” Olha says of Bill and Ginger. “It would not be so easy if they were not here. When you come to another country, new language, all new…”

As for her thoughts on the war, she said the most important thing is her country needs weapons in the fight against Russia.

“Many countries help but there is not much time… it’s hell now in the eastern part of Ukraine.”

Bill said they are all naturally “upset, sad with what Russia is doing to their country, it’s pure evil what’s happening.”

Olha said home is always the best place to be, but they cannot be there now. However, “if there will be prosperity in Ukraine in the next 10 years, maybe we will be able to earn money here and open our own business in Ukraine.”

Bill adds, “help to rebuild the Ukraine.”

An 84-year Haliburton tradition is coming to an end this month after St. George’s Anglican Church announced it is cancelling its annual Shrove Tuesday community pancake supper.

The news was first delivered to the church’s congregation late last month, with Louise Sisson, who has helped out with the event since the 1970s and been lead organizer since 2015, saying a significant drop-off in volunteers was to blame.

“It takes about five weeks of planning to get a list of people together, see what’s coming in for donations and determine what we need to buy or source from elsewhere… we haven’t been able to get very far with that process this year, because we don’t have enough people,” Sisson told The Highlander. “Usually, we have more than 50 volunteers help us. This year, I only had 15 sign up.”

The beginnings of the event date back to 1939, when it was launched by the congregation’s Women’s Auxiliary. Back then it was held at the town hall on Maple Avenue, though was later hosted at the old Orange Hall, the church building on Mountain Street and, finally, the Haliburton Legion.

It was the “perfect way” for churchgoers to kick off their Lenten season, Sisson said, which involves 40 days of fasting, and generally prohibits those practising from consuming meat, eggs, dairy, fish, wine, and oils.

“Pigging out on pancakes the night before was always great, because it allowed us to use up all our [food] reserves, and also helped your mind get where it needs to be for the 40 days of Lent,” she said.

Phyllis Bishop is another who poured her heart and soul into the event. She has been volunteering, in some capacity, since the 1960s. During that time, she has held near enough every position – from general helper to pie cutter, greeter to server. In the late 1990s, she assumed leadership of the supper from Aveline Petch.

Church remains committed to its fundraising efforts

By that point, the dinner was “a well-oiled machine” being held at the Legion. Bishop said that, for many years, the pancake supper was one of the biggest winter events in the County, attended by hundreds of people. As well as being served two or three hearty pancakes, attendees were also offered sausages, homemade coleslaw, and pie for dessert.

The volunteers always ate too, said Lindsey Coates, who has been assisting since 1990.

“One of my favourite memories was about 20 years ago, we had such a huge turnout for the supper that we ran out of pancakes and sausages. Fortunately, we did feed the community before this occurred,” Coates said. “What to feed the hungry and weary volunteers? Thanks to a generous parishioner, we ordered pizza.”

While the event was always free, the church started to collect donations around the time Bishop took over. In the early years, they would raise a few hundred dollars, which was used to support a variety of church initiatives. In the 2000s, with demand growing at places like the 4Cs Food Bank in Haliburton, the congregation switched gears, making more of a concerted effort to support organizations, and people, in need.

“We decided that we wanted to stand for something, rather than just be,” Sisson said. “We focused on local outreach. We found there was such great need in our community.”

The church would raise around $10,000 per year, with a sizeable chunk of that coming from the pancake supper – between $2,000 and $3,000, according to Sisson. That money has filtered through to organizations such as Places for People, the Youth Hub operated by Point in Time, Volunteer Dental Outreach, the 4Cs, the Pregnancy Care and Family Support Centre, and Heat Bank Haliburton County.

Even though the pancake supper is no more, Sisson said the church remains committed to its fundraising efforts.

“It is the end of a tradition that has served the community for many, many years. We are sad, but our church will continue to support local charities. This year, the 4Cs Food Bank will be the recipient of all donations received in support of our new Shrove Tuesday Fundraising Campaign,” Sisson said.

Since launching a couple of weeks ago, the new operation has raised more than $500. Sisson is confident of bringing in at least $2,000 by Feb. 21. People can donate by visiting the church on Sundays or making an e-transfer to office@haliburtonanglican. ca. Charitable tax receipts are available upon request.

Life is a combination of crossroads intertwined to make us who we are, and Rails End Gallery and Arts Centre in Haliburton is holding a new exhibit showcasing the stories that helped mould some of the community’s most accomplished and up-and-coming artists.

Running until April 1, ‘Intersection’ is the latest offering in Rails End’s annual members’ salon exhibition series. It features works pieced together by some of the Highlands’ most creative minds in painting, sculpture, fabric, and jewelry.

Curator Laurie Jones welcomed invited guests to the show’s kick-off Feb. 4, saying she was pleased to see the arts are “alive and well” in Haliburton County. She noted there were 63 entries to the exhibit.

“We had a lot more three-dimensional works and fibre pieces than usual, which I think speaks to the different ways people interpreted the theme,” Jones said. “It was a challenging theme this year, one that made people really think. It brought us probably our most diverse selection of submissions in years.”

Speaking to her own entry, which she called Witness Tree, Jones said she drew inspiration from a forest in upper New York state that was long used as a landmark, or navigation tool, for settlers in the area. When sharing her story, Jones said the conversation pivoted to focus on how a place can remain the same, untouched through time.

“That got me thinking into how time is this three-dimensional thing that intersects everything – our passions, our lives… and the more we talked, the more people took it in different directions. So, that painting (Witness Tree) really became the source of the name of the show,” Jones added.

Harvey Walker talked about his piece Patterns Repeating, an oil painting on canvas. He said it depicts the “ultimate intersection” of two lives he saw come together on a park bench while he was attending a competition at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Vaughan last year. Inspired, he finished his piece in a couple of hours.

A long-time supporter of the gallery, Christine Mino, said she found out about the exhibit during a dinner party at her Halls Lake home earlier this winter.

“I knew I wanted to submit something, but I had no inspiration,” Mino told The Highlander. After some reflection, she drew from some of her favourite places and people from across the County to create Where, When, Why We Met. The piece is made up of 16 small paintings that intersect – one of undisturbed water on Boshkung Lake, another of her husband walking on the ice at Halls Lake. There are also sections dedicated to skiing, the environment and one of her favourite sculptures, a dinosaur left behind by the owners of the old Camp Kawabi in Algonquin Highlands.

The exhibit can be seen in-person Wednesday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is also available online through railsendgallery. Com

Over the past six months, childhood friends Sarah Comer and Shay-Lynn Hutchings have been hard at work establishing a new health and fitness community in Haliburton County.

The pair, both raised in the Highlands, came together last July to form Wellness Hub. Located on Industrial Park Road in Haliburton, the new venture is a passion project years in the making according to Hutchings, who said the space is helping to empower several local entrepreneurs looking to kickstart their business, while offering a slew of unique programs and services to area residents. It officially opened Nov. 1.

“We dared to dream, and Wellness Hub is a direct product of that,” Hutchings told The Highlander. “We feel there’s a real gap in Haliburton County when it comes to specialized services in the health, wellness, and fitness fields. We want to bridge that gap.”

Hutchings offers massage therapy sessions, while Comer hosts popular Pilates classes. Several partners have come on board in recent months, including Chelsea Adamson and her Sweat Social health and fitness gym. The space also boasts a naturopathic doctor, holistic nutritionist, psychotherapist, and Reiki master.

Sticking true to the building’s earlier days, when it served as home to the Haliburton Dance Academy, there are also dance class options for youth and adults.

“The hub is kind of like the umbrella brand, but we have 13 different businesses operating out of here, and we’re always looking for more,” Comer said. “We will take on literally anybody if your values align with ours, which is being open minded, quality over quantity and collaboration over competition.”

The latest addition to the team is Mia Quigley, an RPN who specializes in offering IV vitamin drips.

“We’re excited to partner with Mia, because this is something that Haliburton County has never had access to before. People would have to drive to Peterborough and take a day off work to do something like this before,” Comer said.

Next, the pair are hoping to find a physiotherapist with training in pre-and postnatal services.

Reflecting on their recent opening, Hutchings said there were lots of sleepless nights, noting many things had to fall in place to make this new business feasible.

“I used to be an instructor at HDA, so I know Chyna Schell, who owned the building, very well. She really helped us get things lined up, and then agreed to do a private sale to us, almost as a way to continue the traditions of this space,” Hutchings said.

“We also partnered with the Haliburton County Development Corporation, which has been a tremendous help to us as we’ve navigated these first few months. They’ve really mentored us as we took the leap into entrepreneurship.”

They’re in this for the long haul, Comer said, and are already coming up with plans for the future.

“We have a lot of dreams and goals. We’d like to eventually extend the deck and put in a juice or coffee bar, and have the hub become a spot people can gather and hang out,” Comer said. “We just want this to be a busy, happening spot.” To learn more, visit Wellness Hub on Facebook and Instagram, or contact wellnesshubhali@gmail.com.