Give Me Shelter: Jessie’s House healing families through food with new cookbook

One organization is taking the term “comfort food” to a whole new level.

During this year’s annual’s Global Edmonton Give Me Shelter campaign, we introduce you to a heartwarming initiative: those who have used the services of an Edmonton-area shelter have found a way to strengthen their connection through food.

The kitchen is often the heart of the home. The place where people share food and their stories. That’s proven to be the case at Jessie’s House in Sturgeon County, too.

“We have a lot of really serious, sometimes heartfelt conversations in the kitchen and it’s one of the things that I love most about Jessie’s House,” said Lynne Rosychuk, founder of the Jessica Martel Memorial Foundation and Jessie’s House.

“The kitchen is always usually full with families and kids — it’s a great place to bond with them.”

The foundation provides meals to the families and kids staying there. The comfort food helps them feel safe.

“People come in here and they may not have had nutritious meals for a long time. This is the first time they get a hot, cooked, nutritious meal and once they feel like their one need is being met, they start opening up to you,” said Rosychuk.

When those families leave Jessie’s House, staff say they ask for the recipes. Scent and taste can be powerful evokers of emotion and the food is a trigger of the fond memories created in the kitchen.

Now, instead of providing them one by one, the shelter took it to the next level.

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“We thought we’d put this together for them and give it to them as they leave to go to their new homes,” said Rosychuk.

The cookbook is called Cookin’ with Lynne, is named after Rosychuk, the mother of Jessica Martel: a Morinville woman that was murdered in front of her three children by her common-law husband in 2009.

The cookbook features dozens of recipes for families and for all types of meals. Each family that leaves the shelter gets their own copy, but they’re also for sale to the public online.

“We also decided to create a little bit of a fundraiser, so we’re hoping that it will help subsidize our nutrition program at the house,” said Marla Poelzer, executive director of the Jessica Martel Memorial Foundation.

Poelzer says they’re currently $80,000 short of their annual goal, but the number of people seeking support isn’t dropping.

The demand is so high this year, staff say they’ve had to turn away 700 people.

“Our families are continuing to experience significant barriers in finding affordable housing, which is increasing the length of the stay. The average length of stay for our families right now is anywhere between 31 to 62 days,” said Poelzer.

In November, the shelter was full nearly every single day and that has carried on into December.

“A lot of times families don’t want to leave their situation because of the holidays. We find a lot of times, by the time January comes around we’re seeing the need increase again,” said Poelzer.

The shelter is hoping the cookbook can make up for some of that. But for Rosychuk, it’s about more than just the food.

“Being able to spend time with the families that come here, I wish it would’ve been my daughter but I feel her here with these families that come here,” said Rosychuk.

Jessie’s House is one of six Edmonton and area shelters receiving support through the annual Global News Give Me Shelter campaign.

All donations will be divided evenly among six shelters in the Edmonton area:

On Wednesday, Dec. 18, Global Edmonton is hosting our annual donation drive, when staff will be curbside collecting donations from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

For the Give Me Shelter campaign, gift cards and cash donations can be dropped off at the Global Edmonton building at 5325 Allard Way throughout the campaign to provide much-needed items and Christmas gifts for women and children who are survivors of violence in the community.

For more information on how to donate, you can visit Global’s Give Me Shelter page.

If you or a loved one are experiencing domestic violence, find a shelter in your area or call the confidential 24-hour hotline at 1-866-331-3933. If you are in immediate danger, call 911.

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