Volunteers needed to continue program during busy fall season
The Selkirk and District Lions Club is kicking it up a notch. This summer, they have put on a Lions Hot Lunch Program where, once a month, they provide warm lunches to the community. This free take-away lunch program is a great addition to our community in helping to fight food insecurity.
The program, as the name suggests, is a lunch program in which the Lions serve hot lunch to our community. This once-a-month program is hosted out of Lion’s Manor at 316 Christie Ave. in Selkirk. Residents can stop by on the pre-announced day and will be able to pick up a hot lunch. The Lions will host their final hot lunch program of the summer on Aug. 16.
“(The Lions are) a group of people who just try and get together, have some fun, and try to make our community better. We run the 55+ affordable housing program across from the water tower and the old Barn there. And, I mean, we’re just a group of ordinary people trying to make things better,” said Gord Zeglinski, First Vice District Governor of the Lions.
Nandan Satheesh, the president of our local Lions Club, explained that the idea for something like this came from when the pandemic was in full swing.
“Back in the COVID times, I had the restaurant Vinnie’s there. During that period, from 2020-2022, we did about 5000 free meals from my restaurant,” said Satheesh.
He said that he wanted to do this because he didn’t want to lay off staff during the restrictions, and he realized that many other people in our community were being laid off and were going to be in need, so he decided to serve free meals to the community to try to do as much good as possible.
He wasn’t a Lion at that time, but when the local Lions Club saw what he was doing, they approached him about becoming a member.
Once the Lions Club incorporated Satheesh into their group, the program that was originally run by his restaurant became part of their programming, and they’ve hosted some Christmas warm lunch events in the past.
Satheesh attributed the new ability to host this program monthly this summer to a few volunteers who have joined the ranks and made more programming possible.
They afford to put this programming on through fundraising efforts throughout the year, and this year’s fundraising also allowed them to do a few more lunch programs this summer.
The local Lions Club fundraises in two main ways. The first is their Christmas Cake program in which they make holiday cakes throughout the fall, which are then sold leading up to the holidays to people who enjoy traditional baking. The other fundraiser that they do twice a year is host spring and fall markets at the Selkirk Recreation Complex, where residents can connect with and buy from many local entrepreneurs.
So far, the monthly lunch programs have been well attended. At the first one, two months ago, there were 70 people who stopped by, and the second one, which took place this month, saw 95 people grab a bite.
“It’s going up every month because the need is there, and we could use some volunteer help and more help from the community. If we had the help, we could do more,” said Satheesh.
They are also appealing to residents in the community to help them continue the program into the fall. The group needs a few more volunteers to help make the meals on Saturday mornings, as they also need to start baking holiday cakes for their annual fundraiser.
“That’s the reason we need to bring in some more volunteers. I mean, we always want more volunteers, but for this program to continue, we need more volunteers during the next several months, because we’re shifting to baking the cakes,” said Zeglinski.
He wants to reassure residents that, should they be interested in helping out with this effort, it’s not just hard kitchen work.
“It’s fun. We have a good time when we do it. It’s not all work. And I mean, it’s hard to describe how you feel after you hand somebody a meal and you see their gratitude, because it really makes a difference in people’s lives,” said Zeglinski.
They explained that the group starts at about 8:30 a.m. on the day of, so that the meal is as fresh as possible for the people who get to enjoy it. From there, they cook until around 10 a.m. and enjoy some social time before the first people start to arrive to pick up their lunch at around 11 a.m. or so. They then get to give out meals until about 1 p.m., or they run out, whichever comes first.
Zeglinski and Satheesh welcome residents who would like a free lunch to show up at their next Lions Hot Lunch on Aug. 16.
“The meals are take-out. We don’t have the space to host a sit-down but just come on down. I mean, there’s no judgment. If you’re hungry and you need food, come get it. That’s what we were here for,” said Zeglinski.
If you would like to volunteer with the Lions, give them an email at selkirklionsclub@gmail.com.
You can keep up with the Selkirk and District Lions Club on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/selkirklions.
They will also be hosting a fall market in support of this and their other programming on Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Selkirk Recreation Complex, and yes, they will be selling their famous holiday cakes that always sell out. They will open up pre-orders for holiday cakes later in the fall.
