Iqaluit soup kitchen bids farewell to veteran cook

Cathy Sawyer cooks one of her last pots of soup at the Qayuqtuvik Society Soup Kitchen in Iqaluit May 12. Sawyer hopes to pass the ladle on to another volunteer who can manage cooking daily soups for about 100 hungry Iqalungmiut. After five years as the kitchen’s soup cook, Sawyer is leaving Iqaluit. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

Old and new: volunteers with the Qayuqtuvik Society Soup Kitchen pose with Cathy Sawyer (second from right) on one of her last days as the society’s soup cook. Sawyer leaving Iqaluit with her husband Ben — a surgeon at the Qikiqtani General Hospital — after making Nunavut’s capital home for the past five years. She is joined in this photo by other volunteers, from left Semisi Naqica, Pudloo Lucassie, Mike Stopka and Connie Kwon. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

For the past five years Cathy Sawyer has put the soup into Iqaluit’s soup kitchen.

But now Sawyer — the dedicated soup-cook at the Qayuqtuvik Society’s soup kitchen — is leaving town.

“It’s been wonderful, and lots of fun,” Sawyer told Nunatsiaq News in an interview May 12 while prepping the day’s soup.

“I have not had a single morning where I rolled out of bed and said, ‘oh no, I don’t want to go in today’.”

People. That’s what Sawyer will miss most — both from around town and those who come through the soup kitchen’s doors every day, either to enjoy a hot fresh meal or to volunteer their time.

Like the one volunteer who made everything fun.

“It was just a party around here,” Sawyer said, recalling that person.

Or the volunteer who guided the kitchen through 800 handmade wontons one day.

Or the regular diner who has to be warned if the soup is spicy.

“If I warn him, he won’t complain, but if there’s spice in the soup and I don’t tell him… uh-oh,” Sawyer said.

The soup kitchen, which shares a building with the Piviniit Thrift Shop and the Niqinik Nuatsivik Food Bank, is located next to St. Jude’s Cathedral in downtown Iqaluit.

Sawyer arrived with her husband Ben, a surgeon at the Qikiqtani General Hospital, in 2010 and started volunteering at the soup kitchen right away.

When the soup chef at that time had to leave for a few weeks, Sawyer started taking notes to fill in for him.

“The first soups I made were exact copies, and then I started to take liberties and put more fresh vegetables in, because I love chopping things,” she said.

Soon enough, Sawyer was adapting soup recipes to include whatever food donations happened to come their way.

“When it’s moving time, we’ll get all these boxes of stuff from people’s fridges. And we’ll use it all,” Sawyer said.

Like, say, half-full bottles of ketchup.

“I don’t know if I’d put it into a chicken soup, but in a beef soup ketchup is really good. The things we put into soup here: that’s one of our secrets.”

Sometimes cases of a particular vegetable — beets or squash, say — will appear at the soup kitchen’s door.

“But around here, you always have to put meat in because they’re meat-a-tarians around here — it’s the Inuk way,” she laughed.

And of course, Sawyer works as part of a team, with other volunteers.

“If a volunteer says, I like a little bit more spice in my soup, or I like a little more cloves, then we add things. We call it a group soup.”

In her five years, Sawyer says she’s never made a really bad soup.

“I honestly think it’s God’s blessing. You put your efforts into something and it turns out well.”

But, as with any organization that relies on volunteers, people naturally come and go and sometimes organizations are left scrambling in their wake.

At least one member of the society’s soup kitchen was recently sounding the alarm.

“We’ve had a couple of people who’ve been basically organizing the weekday [lunch] service for the past five years or so… who’ve suddenly had to leave the city,” said Wade Thorhaug, a society member.

That’s resulted in a “reduced capacity” to provide lunch on weekdays, he added.

“So what we’re looking for is people who are free on weekday mornings who can help out with the cooking and serving.”

A worst-case scenario would involve reducing weekday lunches, or cutting them out altogether, Thorhaug said.

“But I doubt it’ll come to that.”

Another society member who sits on the board of directors, Blake Wilson, agreed.

“I’m not that concerned… but losing Cathy’s a big deal of course,” Wilson said over the phone May 11.

The Qayuqtuvik Society, which relies exclusively on donated money and food to operate, is currently working on getting registered charity status.

Their largest donor right now is Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. which contributed $30,000 last year. Agnico Eagle runs the Meadowbank gold mine, north of Baker Lake, and is hoping to open a second mine called Meliadine, near Rankin Inlet.

The soup kitchen also got $20,000 in federal money, given out through the municipal Niksiit Committee, Wilson said.

But private donors are crucial too, he added.

“We have a [crowdfunding website] GoFundMe page, but it hasn’t really taken off as much as I would’ve liked. But we’re working on it.”

And Sawyer, who said she worried her departure would hurt the soup kitchen, said as long as volunteers continue to come through the door and work together, the society will thrive.

“But I’m going to miss the people. And the beauty of the land. There is a beauty here that is unique. There’s beauty everywhere we go, but I’ve never seen anything quite like this… And the people. So many good people. Many of them I’ll stay in touch with.”

You can donate to the Qayuqtuvik Society here or drop by the soup kitchen to volunteer.