Lorette food bank expands with growing need

The number of families using the Tache Food Resource Centre in Lorette doubled in two years, and it is now expanding to make room and meet the demand.

The food bank and Lorette Thrifty Treasures were successful in convincing Tache council to allow them to put an addition onto the back of the old RM administration building still owned by the municipality on Dawson Road.

The food bank now provides food hampers to 97 families, totaling 306 people who need help with groceries. That’s up from 47 families in 2022, according to board member and volunteer coordinator Irene Bialek.

“We need space for storing our food inventory, and we need space to assemble the hampers our clients are picking up,” explained Bialek to council.

SAC marks 45 years with gala

Steinbach Arts Council is celebrating 45 years of providing the community with arts based programing and ushering this milestone anniversary is SAC’s annual gala.

“We’re coming up on our 45 year anniversary so it’s a big one,” said executive director David Klassen.

“We have an amazingly supportive community that comes around us every year and really supports the work that we do. We subsidize every single thing that we do, whether it’s a concert or preschool programs, so the fact that the community recognizes the value in that and that we get support from all levels of government is a real privilege and honour. We know we have the support and its not taken for granted,” he later added.

SAC is looking to raise $50,000 at the gala which is the organization’s largest fundraiser of the year.

Ste Anne annexation submitted to province

The Town of Ste Anne is closer to adding a large piece of the surrounding RM of Ste Anne to its boundaries.

A submission to the province includes a memorandum of understanding (MOU) from the RM as the two municipalities work together to make adding more space for town growth a reality.

“We organized a meeting with the RM and we’ve also invited the residents that would be impacted,” said Town of Ste Anne Mayor Yvan St. Vincent.

He explained the MOU from the RM should make things a little quicker and smoother. Details like tax sharing agreements would need to be worked out once the province gives the OK.

Epic/Smile of St Malo celebrating 50 years with fundraiser

Epic/Smile of St Malo is celebrating 50 years of providing people with intellectual disabilities with employment.

“It’s a very big accomplishment and we’re thrilled that we were able to celebrate with everybody and involve the community as much as we can,” said support services manager Danyka Hunnie.

“We support individuals with disabilities in both of our programs. We have a day program which is a place where they get supportive employment opportunities. The other way we support our clients is through our residential homes. In the day program, we have 52 program participants, which include the 20 residents that live in (our) care home(s).”

To celebrate 50 years in the community, the organization will hold a supper with the aim of fundraising to support its programing and to build more residential homes.

Addressing traffic concerns at Mitchell Elementary School

How parents drop-off and pick-up their kids in front of Mitchell Elementary School might soon change in order to keep children safe.

A request from a member of the Mitchelle Elementary Parent Council to the RM of Hanover to look at traffic safety in front of the school might lead to lane changes where parents pick up and drop off their kids.

On Feb. 22, at about 8:10 a.m., community safety officer Trevor Schellenberg arrived at the school and observed the following: parents parking into oncoming traffic to drop their children off, parents parking in the “No Parking” zone making children cross two lanes of traffic, and within the intersection of Stanway North and Willow Street cars were stacking up along the east and west side of the street (some were pulling into this line facing against traffic flow as well) creating less than a car width opening for any vehicle to get through going north on Willow.

“At the same time a vehicle had attempted to get through but was unable to due to the bottle neck of vehicles. Two children emerged from out of this “traffic jam” and were nearly hit by a bus attempting to cross from Stanway North into the bus loop,” read the memo to the RM from Schellenberg.

Ste Anne Aces fall in provincial finals

For the second consecutive year, the Ste Anne Aces could do nothing but watch as the Miniota/Elkhorn C-Hawks celebrated winning a provincial championship.

Despite notching a 7-2 game two win in Niverville April 13, the Aces would fall the next day in Virden as the C-Hawks cruised to victory in the third and final game of the series.

Brenden Walker was dominant in game two, scoring five times to extend the series, but Ste Anne’s offense would go quiet in game three.

Miniota/Elkhorn took control early, scoring two minutes into the first period en route to a 2-0 intermission lead and 6-2 victory. It was the same story in the second period, with an early period marker for the C-Hawks and a 4-0 lead as the game hit the third period.

Ritchot looking to reduce food waste with pilot project

The RM of Ritchot is looking to reduce food waste through a pilot project which aims to reduce the carbon footprint of a household and extend the life of the landfill.

The RM is partnering with Food Cycle Science to launch the FoodCycler pilot program where kitchen waste is placed into a machine and turned into compost that can be used in the garden.

“We signed a partnership agreement on March 6 and we’re just looking to provide an option for composting in the municipality. It would help extend the life of our landfill. About 50 percent of household waste is composed of food waste so we’re just trying to be conscious about the environment,” said assistant CAO Dominique Lemoine.

The RM is offering 100 FoodCycler machines at a reduced cost to the first 100 residents who register for the pilot project. Two machines are available for purchase: FC-30 for $150 (retail $500), which holds 2.5 litres of waste or the larger Eco 5 unit for $300 (retail $800), which holds 5 litres of waste. In exchange, the residents will record their usage of the machine over the course of 12 weeks and answer a quick survey at the end of the pilot.

Badminton season reaching crescendo

by CASSIDY DANKOCHIK

High school badminton players from across the region are gearing up as provincials are fast approaching.

Results from the Zone 13 South championships April 17 hosted at Steinbach Regional Secondary School were not available at press time. Top athletes from that tournament will move onto complete zones, which will be hosted in Lac du Bonnet April 23.

In advance of the tournaments, players have been participating in league nights in St Pierre and Steinbach, preparing for zones.

Taking on crime with a helping hand

A local program called Headway, designed to support struggling youth, adults and their families to lower their involvement with crime received an enthusiastic endorsement from Steinbach RCMP Staff Sgt. Guy Landreville at an April 2 Steinbach council meeting.

Landreville presented the year end crime statistics to council, noting that break and enters had risen from 2022 to 2023 by 30 percent to 152.

“The culprits are not really dealt with as far as being incarcerated for any length of time and it causes us further problems when they’re just released as quickly as they’re put in,” he told council.

Landreville said most of the break and enters and some thefts, which also saw a small increase to 387, are addiction driven.

Sweet turnout for Sugaring Off Festival

The Sugaring Off Festival in St Pierre was a rousing success. Organizers say the festival drew 2,350 people over the weekend and an additional 1,200 students throughout the week leading up to it. That meant more than 1,700 taffy on ice treats were handed out.