Non-profit sends sea can full of food to Gjoa Haven in pilot project

A newly formed New Brunswick-based non-profit delivered a sea can full of donated food to Gjoa Haven this month.

A Tapestry of Kindness Network Inc. partnered with Gjoa Haven contracting company Cap Enterprises Ltd. to ship the container from Quebec.

Volunteers sort and organize food hampers inside Sacred Heart of Mary Church in Gjoa Haven. Leftover non-perishable food items have been stored at the church. (Photo courtesy of A Tapestry of Kindness Network Inc.)

The shipment of canned foods was unloaded and distributed Sept. 9 and 10 with the help of volunteers, including local school children, said Rick Maher, managing director of the network.

In total, 220 hampers were provided with food staples such as rice, pasta, tomato sauce and sugar, chosen with input from local Sacred Heart of Mary parish priest Rev. Lukasz Sazac.

Sazac also co-ordinated the distribution from the church, which has stored food that wasn’t immediately handed out.

“The idea was that providing these [non-perishable food] items would free up money for people to buy fresh produce and meat,” said Linda Maher, who co-founded the network with her husband.

“That was the whole purpose: to support them financially, while allowing them to make choices for nutritious foods from the supermarket.”

Rick Maher estimated that of Gjoa Haven’s approximately 1,600 residents, 400 to 500 people came to collect the hampers, noting families were asked to bring two or three members because the packages were heavy.

Both Mahers are retired health-care chaplains from St. John’s, N.L., who now live in New Brunswick.

A Tapestry of Kindness Network Inc. was the dream of fellow Newfoundlander Charlie Cahill, who is the owner-operator of Cap Enterprises Ltd. in Gjoa Haven, where he now lives.

“He had a vision of starting some type of legacy project [in the community] focused on kindness and giving food,” said Rick Maher.

A Tapestry of Kindness Network was incorporated as a non-profit business through the New Brunswick government earlier this year.

The pilot food program was created to find a way to ease financial pressures faced by families in Gjoa Haven since the federal government cancelled a universal children’s food voucher program earlier this year, a news release said.

The vouchers, introduced in 2024 under the Inuit Child First Initiative, provided $500 per month for every Inuit child under 18, plus another $250 for children under four. The initiative was extended in March, but food support was scaled back to case-by-case funding.

A Tapestry of Kindness Network has applied for charitable status with the Canada Revenue Agency, which would allow it to issue tax receipts and expand fundraising across Nunavut.

Rick Maher said work so far shows the project is possible but acknowledged the challenges of shipping food north.

“With one project under our belt, we now have confidence it can be repeated,” he said.

Linda Maher said, “We are originally from Newfoundland, so we understand isolation. It’s nice to give the message that people in remote areas are cared for and supported by those in the south.”