Moose meat donation to Prince Albert Grand Council helps feed vulnerable community

A group of eight people brought three bull moose back from a January hunting trip to the Porcupine Plain area of Saskatchewan, and the results — about 1,300 pounds of meat — are now flowing out to the community through the Prince Albert Grand Council's emergency shelter.

The meat has been delivered to Relatives' Lodge, the 24-hour shelter PAGC runs out of the Prince Albert Exhibition Centre. 

"When you go hunting all the time and you fill up your own fridge, it's [about] giving back to the community and saying, 'OK, where else can we utilize this food to help people?'" said Vincent Brittain, the PAGC's director of urban services and Relatives' Lodge.

The lodge's 35 beds are full every night, he said.

The shelter serves three meals a day to adults experiencing homelessness in Prince Albert and surrounding communities.

Brittain is one of several PAGC members, including Grand Chief Brian Hardlotte, who participated in the hunt.

For him, the donation is about more than filling freezers, Brittain said. It's a way to put traditional food to use in the community, while helping offset the rising cost of meat.

The harvest will help feed people for months, he said. 

The moose were processed into different cuts, including stew meat, roasts and hamburger, making it easier to build meals that can go further.

The hunt also carried cultural meaning.

Floyd Cook, PAGC's land-based coordinator, was also on the hunting trip. He described practices that took place on the land after the harvest, including laying down tobacco, offering a prayer and giving thanks for the animal.

"It's just an old Cree tradition that we follow," Cook said. 

Some of the organs were cooked and eaten there, while other parts were hung up as part of a longstanding tradition meant to honour the animal and the harvest itself.

Brittain framed that as part of a larger principle, to use everything and waste nothing.