Page Text: The Community Network
By Tim Johnson
Early one morning in mid-November, boxes filled with an assortment of ingredients — from fresh produce to packaged and canned food — pack the hallway and dining room of Georgette Popoff’s Clareview Edmonton home.
A couple of Georgette Popoff’s home-cooked meals are prepared in their containers at her home in Edmonton AB, November 13, 2020. Georgette Popoff/ Supplied.
Boxes filled with an assortment of donated ingredients sit in the hallways of Georgette Popoff’s home in Edmonton, AB, November 13, 2020. Georgette Popoff/ Supplied.
Inside the kitchen, the scene is alive with action.
Trays filled with sliced vegetables line up along the countertop, ready to be cooked.
The inside of Georgette Popoff’s Kitchen during her cooking day at her home in Edmonton AB, November 13, 2020. Georgette Popoff/ Supplied.
On the stove, a clean set of pots and pans sits across from a pot filled with cooked rice. In between them are a couple of opened seasoning shakers.
This is what normally unfolds in her home kitchen when she prepares home-cooked meals for families in need.
“It's always double checking the spicing and making sure that it's something that I would feed my own family,” she says.
Once the ingredients are cooked, they are placed into separate containers — big enough to fit a full rotisserie chicken — each filled with a different kind of meal.
Some of Georgette Popoff’s home-cooked meals are prepared in their containers at her home in Edmonton AB, November 13, 2020. Georgette Popoff/ Supplied.
Soon after, all of the kitchenware is placed next to the sink, ready to be cleaned before the next cooking round begins.
Kitchenware is stacked up next to the sink in Georgette Popoff’s Kitchen during her cooking day at her home in Edmonton AB, November 13, 2020. Georgette Popoff/ Supplied.
“When I do my cooking, I can go through washing my pots and pans four to five times in one day,” she says.
Most of her ingredients are donated by members of the YEG Community Response to COVID19 , a community Facebook group where Popoff connects with her recipients and fellow volunteers.
When Alberta declared a public health emergency, imposing restrictions on Edmonton in mid-March, the page was created to provide a network for people to access assistance and support from volunteers in the group.
In May, a Statistics Canada survey found that 15 per cent of Canadians reported living in food-insecure households during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since March, volunteers of the Edmonton-based Facebook group have been trying to bridge that gap by organizing food deliveries for those in need. The group also delivers other basic necessities not available other basic necessities that are not available at the food banks, such as diapers, formula, and pet food.
But as the pandemic rages on, some are starting to feel stretched thin, and have been looking for new ways to adapt to the overwhelming need in their community.
As of December, the Facebook group has become a major community hub with over 20,000 members, many who actively support each other and help families in need.
The group’s team of admins and moderators are often updating community members with information from the provincial and federal governments as well as requests for help.
These requests are either sent to the admins or designated volunteers through private messages or posted on the group’s page.
Moved by many requests for food from community members, Popoff decided to volunteer her time and kitchen to provide home-cooked meals for these families with the goal of raising their spirits and ensuring they receive healthy food.
"There's a lot of families that actually don't have meals out there,” she says. “They are in real need of having a real cooked meal.”
At first, she offered to cook meals for families, who supplied their own ingredients. But within a month, more people asked Popoff if they could give her ingredients and have her cook for others.
Using the donated ingredients, Popoff improvises her meals. Unemployed herself, she spends about two days a week, from dawn until dusk, bustling around her small kitchen and preparing dozens of meals for others.
“They range anywhere from butter chickens to stir-fries, to different kinds of creations,” she says.
In order for families to receive her meals, they send requests to her either by private message or word-of-mouth from other volunteers involved in the group. Most of these requests come from the Facebook group.
But, as the number of requests continued to grow, Popoff began to feel overwhelmed. These requests have also strained some of the other volunteers in the group and pushed them to their limits and struggle to meet demand.
One group of volunteers improvised by developing a plan to set up weekly pick-up locations where their households can ask to receive food hampers.
On Saturday morning, a November blizzard sweeps across a small strip mall parking lot in south-east Edmonton’s Millbourne neighbourhood. Sharma Vimal and his fellow volunteers exit their vehicles and set up a small table in a corner of the lot.They lay out a banner that resembles an envelope with the words "Postal Workers" on it.
The Postal Workers is a group of volunteers who buy food hampers and deliver them to people in need. Most of these volunteers work full-time as actual postal workers.
The group first formed after Vimal saw someone's Facebook post asking for bread.
“I was disturbed when I looked at that post, so I tapped a few of my friends and said, ‘This is happening and we are going to start something to help these people!’ ” he explained.
Soon after, Vimal and his fellow postal workers pooled their money together and bought dozens of food hampers to be distributed to those in need.
A tray of packaged bread sits on the table in strip mall parking lot on Millbourne Road East and Mill woods Road in Edmonton, AB, November 7, 2020. Photo by Tim Johnson.
Over time, they have delivered an average of 50 food hampers per week.
The Postal Workers receive requests through direct messages and post their pick-up locations and times on Facebook, including the YEG Community Response to COVID19 Facebook group.
At first, they were delivering hampers to families' homes. But, constrained by their full-time jobs, they had to reduce their runs and set up a weekly pick-up table instead.
“So, instead of delivering food right to their homes, we are now doing this (pick-up locations) once a week," he says.
As the Postal Workers opened their trunks, they pulled out huge blue coolers filled with individually portioned soup containers and small, bright yellow grocery bags, each carrying a food hamper.
The Postal Workers wait for the families in a strip mall parking lot on Millbourne Road East and Mill woods Road in Edmonton, AB, November 7, 2020. Photo by Tim Johnson.
As the Postal Workers brave the cold, many of the families slowly arrive one-by-one either by foot or by vehicle.
The Postal Workers determination to continue helping families is a shared trait among the many of the Facebook group volunteers. But, there is only so much that they can do.
Postal Worker Volunteers Rajeev Maheshwari (L) and Sharma Vimal (R) give out a food hamper in a strip mall parking lot on Millbourne Road East and Mill woods Road in Edmonton, AB, November 7, 2020. Photo by Tim Johnson.
Back in Clareview, Popoff's resources have been stretched thin and overwhelmed by surging requests for meals, even with the efforts of the Postal Workers.
“A lot of times, unfortunately, these families are like seven people (large),” she says. “Sometimes, there are only two.”
There have also been a few cases of recipients taking advantage of her generosity, making requests from multiple accounts or asking for help when there wasn’t a real need. Other times, some have viewed her project as an alternative to take-outs.
To address some of these problems, Popoff regularly investigates a few of the Facebook profiles of those asking for her help to verify their need for help.
If she finds that they are either lying or insincere about their needs, she will politely decline these requests.
“If you just had a bong and liquor party last night, and you're asking for eight meals, it's not happening,” she explains. “So I'll just say, ‘I'm sure it's just not available.’”
On top of the fraudulent requests and overwhelming demand, she adds, there is also a lack of appreciation for her home-cooked meals, which led her to close her kitchen on May 2.
“It almost feels like you are doing it for nothing. I just put myself through hell on those (cooking) days. It normally takes me one to two days to recuperate from my meal-cooking days because I just don’t have a lot of strength,” she says.
Soon after seeing Popoff’s post, several community members sent her supportive messages. Some even tried to keep the project alive by offering assistance and donations.
That’s when she realized that she was the only one in the Facebook group offering home-cooked meals. What really struck Popoff, however, was the overwhelming interest in her meals after her retreat. That’s what motivated her to start cooking again and give the project another chance.
“People were asking for my recipes, and that made me feel really good,” she says.
The appreciation reminded her of a good turn when the community helped her a month before.
Popoff received overwhelming support from the members after asking the group if anyone could donate clothes to one of her sons for his 16th birthday.
As tears fill her eyes, she takes a moment to reflect on how members of the community came out in full force and celebrate his birthday.
“I just posted that if anyone's going through their closets, would they mind if they could take a peek for something that would fit my son,” she says.
Her posts caught the attention of dozens of members in the Facebook group who responded to her request and overwhelmed her family with gifts.
In addition to clothes for her birthday boy, members of the community also gifted the family some good, and an unexpected surprise.
Rows of fancy sports cars drove by their home, giving the family a special show of appreciation.
“Those are things that I can't afford to buy as a single parent myself. So, I think people are more willing to help when you need it. It is amazing,” she says.
After recollecting those memories, she reaches for her phone and texts Jessica Kinsella, a hamper driver she met through the group, to ask when he will arrive at the house with a box full of bananas destined for another volunteer looking to make banana bread.
After 30 mins, Kinsella finally arrives with the box, which Popoff tops off with a few bananas from her own freezer.
A box of donated bananas sits in Georgette Popoff’s home in Edmonton AB, November 13, 2020. Georgette Popoff/ Supplied.
After being laid off from her previous job at the start of the pandemic, Kinsella decided to use her time to help those who were struggling.
Searching for any available volunteer opportunities, she came across the Facebook group and decided to help with any requests she could. It seemed like a natural fit since Kinsella already had experience making similar deliveries for a charity called Meals-on-Wheels.
While looking through the list of requests, Kinsella noticed a common problem.
“I realized a lot of people on the page said that they couldn't get the food because not only could they not afford food, but they can't either afford gas or they don't drive. So a lot of them just needed delivery,” she says.
“I feel very strongly about food insecurity, and so I just started doing deliveries,” she adds.
Eventually, members of the group noticed her activities and reached out to her, asking if she can commit to more deliveries. They gave her a spreadsheet, outlining the details of hamper requests.
“I've stayed in touch with the team and also have been checking the page very regularly, sometimes too much,” she says. “Basically, if I see one that I can handle, then I just let them know and I go for it.”
While making her deliveries, she also builds personal connections with some of the families, often learning about some of their heartfelt moments.
Kinsella recalls a conversation with an Edmonton mother about how her children played with the food from the hampers.
“She told me that they were actually playing in a grocery store with all the food that they got,” she says. “They just want to sort everything.”
For Kinsella, these moments are what motivates her to continue making deliveries.
Aside from food hampers, Kinsella explains that people need other basic necessities not available at the food banks, such as diapers, formula, pet food, milk, and meat.
One of Kinsella’s recipients felt grateful for the level of support that both she and her children received from the community. Hesitant to identify herself as a person relying on donations for her family, she wishes to remain anonymous.
When she first came across the page, she privately emailed one of the admins, appealing for help to secure a food hamper for her family.
Within a matter of minutes, she received an overwhelming response from the community, with many of the members offering their support to her.
“I was almost in tears when I got the help,” she says. “I was not expecting that much.”
For her, members of the Facebook group have become a sort of family
Although the community has helped many families, Kinsella noticed that the donors and volunteers are already reaching their limits in their ability to help.
“It is hard because you get people asking three or four times in a month for help,” she says.
Kinsella hopes more people will join and help the Facebook group and volunteer instead of doing nothing.
Nonetheless, the team continues to work hard to maintain the group, providing a community network where people can still access support.
“I think it (this page) really has shown a lot of good in this city. And when a lot of people are feeling like it's very dark, there are resources out there,” she says.
While looking at her phone, Popoff receives a message from the volunteer that she is ready to pick up the bananas.
Outside the house, a young woman walks up to the front porch, retrieves the box from Popoff, and remarks that there should be enough bananas in to bake a dozen loaves.
Once the loaves are freshly baked from the oven, they will be handed back to Popoff, who will then send them off to a number of families with the hope to warm their homes.
After experiencing the community kindness firsthand from her son’s birthday, she is resolved to pay it forward with everyone else.
“There are so many people that are just willing to offer their time,” she says. “And it shows so much community spirit that everyone helps each other in whatever ways that they're able to do.”