Frugal Moms helping to feed the hungry
Food rescue focus of Annapolis Valley Frugal Moms Society in past three years
What started out as a group to try to assist people in saving money by price matching and couponing has evolved into food rescue missions that are helping people from Windsor through to Digby.
It will be 13 years in May since the group, Annapolis Valley Frugal Moms Society, was started.
“That’s how we started, we were price matching and couponing and wanted to share with people in the Valley how to get deals, but COVID changed so much,” says co-founder Lisa Rose, of Kentville.
“With limits on buying stuff and coupons, manufacturers aren’t putting a high value on freebies like they used to, so we switched to doing more food rescue because that’s helping more people,” she says. “Not everyone can afford to buy even with a coupon. That’s what we’ve been doing for the last three years.”
Rose says last year, Frugal Moms rescued about 100,000 pounds of food from grocery stores in the Annapolis Valley; food that expired today and would be tossed tomorrow because it can’t be sold, explains Rose.
“We teach people how to dehydrate, can, process, freeze and cook with all these different items,” Rose says.
Frugal Moms has 15 volunteers in the Annapolis Valley and one in Digby County.
“When they bring food from the
Valley — we all do what I do — some of them have garages, I have a barn. All the volunteers work out of our own homes. With food rescue, we go pick it up and people come to our homes and pick it up,” says Wendy Morrell-Pyne, of Brighton, Digby County.
Morrell-Pyne says she initially got involved with Frugal Moms when she moved from Halifax back to the Digby area.
“I’m originally from here,” she says. “I was struggling with cancer and stuff myself when we moved here and we needed some extra help with some food so I was getting some help myself.”
When the previous volunteer couldn’t help out with the cause anymore, Morrell-Pyne was asked if she could help.
“That’s when I realized how bad food insecurities are here in Digby. Within the first few days, we were just getting tomatoes and cucumbers and the first day I had 15 people coming to my door and it escalated to do you have any more food because we don’t have anything,” she says.
“Food rescue is my main thing. So many people are reaching out for help. This morning I posted what I had to give away and within 20 minutes I had 18 people in my yard,” says MorrellPyne.
Many of them were seniors.
“Because we have more supports and are non-profit, in this end of the Valley, our numbers are about 20 to 30 families per day but when I go to Digby I get surrounded,” adds Rose. “We can’t send enough food down there. You have nine, 12 and 13 people, several families, living in one house with maybe one or two people working.”
Rose says there is also evidence of homelessness in the Digby area.
“When you go towards Sissaboo Falls, you can see tons of tarps and structures, people living in the woods. It’s heartbreaking. One thing I learned is there is no homeless shelter in Digby.”
In addition to volunteering with Frugal Moms, Morrell-Pyne has set up an emergency pantry in her own home in Brighton in partnership with the St. Mary’s Bay Baptist Church.
“If people message me I do up an emergency box and take it to them,” she says. “The pantry helps people when Frugal Moms can’t.”
In the wintertime, because of road conditions and the risk of freezing produce, Frugal Moms makes bi-weekly deliveries to Digby, says Rose. “We send chickpeas, kidney beans… we deliver to all the seniors' complexes. They don’t have enough to survive.”
In addition to food rescue, Frugal Moms puts on workshops, such as canning workshops to teach people how to preserve their food so it lasts longer.
“We do get a huge amount of tomatoes and cucumbers, so pasta sauces, salsa, different types of pickles,” says Morrell-Pyne, adding she is working with S t. Mary’s Bay Church with an aim to renovate their kitchen so workshops can be held there. “People have contacted me and asked about workshops, how to bake bread, making frugal meals, canning workshops.”
Frugal Moms recently received a $1,000 grant from the Digby and Area Community Health Board that will be used for gas expenses doing food rescue and deliveries.
“We need donations for gas money,” says Rose. “If we can’t rescue the food… that’s one of our biggest hurdles — $130 a day in gas.”
While there are food banks in Digby County and throughout the Annapolis Valley, Morrell-Pyne says how Frugal Moms differs is food banks require a letter from Social Services or other support, stating the person needs help.
“We don’t require any of that. We help anybody,” Morrell-Pyne says.
“The person next door, maybe they don’t need help all the time, but maybe they need a little help so that’s where we differ from the food bank,” she says. “Some of the stuff I do get I give to the food banks in the area. Digby seems to get more food than Weymouth Food Bank so if they contact me, I help them out with some of the food I get. I’ve also taken food to the Islands Food Bank.”
Rose says Frugal Moms is hoping to start teaching gardening this spring, noting, “The cost of food is not going down.”
The Annapolis Valley Frugal Moms Society has several Facebook Pages. Besides the main page, which has almost 10,000 followers, there is a page dedicated to canning and preserving, helping hands, a yard sale site and a fundraising page.