The daily feeding program at The Salvation Army got a boost when Saskatchewan Conservation Officers from the Ministry of Community Safety, Prince Albert, visited and donated about 325 pounds of elk meat.
The meat will be used to provide meals for homeless residents in the Prince Albert community.
“It’s a privilege to have a variety of meat like elk and to be able to receive a gift like that,” The Salvation Army’s Major Ed Dean said. “We are always grateful because it does stretch our food budget… It was made into ground elk. We can make different dishes with ground meat.”
Two elk were illegally harvested near Prince Albert late last fall. After testing negative for Chronic Wasting Disease, the animals were approved for donation, thereby turning an unfortunate event into something positive by feeding the members of the community through the feeding program of the Salvation Army.
The donation was made by the Conservation Officers partnered with Kyle Goosen, the owner of Outback Butcher, who handled the processing of the meat.
The 325 pounds of meat was “packaged into two-pound packages, which is a nice size,” Dean said. “That way we can take as we need rather than have to use it all at once.”
The meat will be used for a variety of meals like chilli, pie, and so on.
“The donation is quite helpful to us as we will be using part of it for tomorrow’s meal,” Dean said. “We say thank you very much to the department. We are open to receiving wild meat from them because we know it’s been tested and processed properly, and it definitely supports our budget with groceries getting more and more expensive.”
He added that the Salvation Army is open to partnerships like this with either government or private establishments.
“We have many partners in our community, and the Ministry of Community Safety is one of them. Last year, we received some Elk and Moose meat, so it’s not our first time receiving from them, so it’s a non-going partnership. These partnerships are what make the community,” Dean concluded.
