By Jessie Weisner

COMMUNITY WELLNESS CENTRE

Food bank and MHPSD to explore partnership for Community Food and Wellness Centre

Sep 19, 2019 | 5:44 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The Medicine Hat and District Food Bank has announced they’re exploring a partnership with the Medicine Hat Public School Division (MHPSD) to build a Community Food and Wellness Centre.

“It’s a cafe setting where folks can come and gather around food, we know that the most magical things happen around food,” says Celina Symmonds, executive director of the Medicine Hat and District Food Bank. “It’s really just about bringing people together under one roof, people of all demographics so that it actually is for everyone, not just those living in poverty.”

An idea that’s been in the works for four years, the ‘community hub’ would be an inclusive space offering food, wellness and education services to local people. The 35,000 square-foot, $8.5 million facility is also part of a plan to end Medicine Hat poverty by 2030.

Now, MHPSD says they’re exploring the idea of a partnership with the food bank in order to include an ‘alternative school’ in the building.

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“Alternative learning is supposed to provide an opportunity for any student to access meaningful and engaging learning in a setting other than their traditional school,” says Mark Davidson, MHPSD superintendent.

Davidson says the school board was already exploring options for an alternative school. Some of their programs are currently operating in rented offices around the City, and they’d like to bring some into a single space.

The Stay In School program and the Young Mothers program are both examples of current alternative programs in Medicine Hat.

The school would be a small portion of the potential centre, likely featuring five or six small classrooms, a half-gym and some offices for counselling and occupational therapies.

Davidson says the programming in the facility would be dependent on other partners that join the project.

“There are a wide rang of curricular options within Alberta Educations programs of study that would allow students to work in conjunction with Alberta Health Services for example, the health care aide program,” says Davidson. “Or they could work in conjunction with the cooking program that is part of the vision on the food bank side, and gain credit on that side.”

He hopes to consult with other potential partners as they come forward.

“The broader range of partners that are there, for whom it makes sense to be present for their stakeholders,” he says. “The greater opportunities for the learning of students who go their for all or part of their programming.”

MHPSD also has a piece that could house the facility. The site of the Ecole Les Cypres school on the Southeast Hill. The school is set to be demolished following the schools move to its new location.

“We have to decide at some point what to do with that parcel of land,” says Rick Massini, chair of the MHPSD board of trustees. “Options, among others, is that we build a school on that site, that we enter into a partnership with somebody else on developing that site, maybe we would sell that site and use the revenue to build elsewhere or engage in something else.”

That location has received opposition from area residents. As a result, the board is ensuring residents vigorous consultation will be completed before anything goes forward.

“We are not about to impose anything on a community that is opposed to a plan, it would be counterproductive,” says Massini. “Any speculation that we’re discussing or making decisions behind closed doors is erroneous.”

The projected $8.5 million project remains in the discussion stage, with the food bank consulting stakeholders, possible partners and exploring other locations.

“That is why we’re releasing this right now, is so we can have an opportunity to speak to potential partners in the community who might be interested to coming to the table on this,” says Symmonds. “We certainly have had initial conversations with some but nothing is cemented yet.”