City, Social Services rallying community partners in bid to save Harvest Algoma

The financial challenges facing the Harvest Algoma program and the effort to save it is offering Social Services the possibility of centralizing all food distribution in the city.

Harvest Algoma is a United Way program put in place in 2018 to address food insecurity in the area. It currently distributes food to about 70 organizations in Sault Ste. Marie from its Food Distribution Centre on Second Line.

A plan for the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre to take over Harvest Algoma recently fell through when it could not meet the funding shortfall and some partner agencies that rely on the program would not commit funding to keep it going over the next three years.

Social Services CEO Mike Nadeau and Mayor Matthew Shoemaker are now taking on the role of cheerleading the program's benefits to those community partners.

“I am really speaking to partner agencies to express to them this is something the city wants to be continued and is willing to participate in the continued success of it," said Shoemaker of the ongoing talks. "From a community perspective, while each of these organizations may have their own mandate, they all want to see the community move in the right direction."

Shoemaker said some organizations have been reluctant to sign on because funding a food security program that benefits the entire community is not in their individual mandates.

“I am pushing the cross-organizational message that is beyond their specific mandate," said Shoemaker. "They are partners in our community and should be concerned with the potential downside risks of losing the organization."

Nadeau said the challenges facing Harvest Algoma are offering an opportunity to transform not just the product, but the way food is distributed throughout the community in the future.

Harvest Algoma currently supports about 70 local organizations with fresh, canned and frozen food, but many of the organizations also collect food on their own.

“We are all speaking and trying to figure out how we can collectively — is there a way we can centralize resources for the community good, rather than individually funding food within each agency can we have a centralized intake that is a food distributor for all the organizations?" said Nadeau.

The hope is, by pooling the collective resources of all the partners, the food supply in Sault Ste. Marie can be increased while reducing overlapping of services provided by multiple agencies.

“We are all doing something a little differently, so is there a way we can pool our resources into a centralized institution and that institution can be a distributor — not to people, but to the organizations that collectively contribute?" he said.

Shoemaker said the talks with partner agencies are ongoing. 

“I would say there is some hope that we continue to move in the right direction with the organizations we are talking to. I don't think we are there yet but I also don’t think it’s a definite no yet from a bunch of these places and we will see what the next seven to 10 days brings us on this, but I haven’t lost faith," said Shoemaker.

Reached by email earlier this week, Innovation Centre executive director Peter Bruijns said there was nothing new to report since he announced earlier this month that it would not be continuing with plans to take over the project from United Way.

Harvest Algoma’s Food Resource Centre opened on Second Line East in July 2018, with financial support from Social Services. According to the United Way's 2022 annual report, an estimated 62,535 pounds of food has been distributed through Harvest Algoma, feeding 14,187 adults and 4,469 children.