SIRCH 2022 Fall Newsletter

SIRCHlight

creating resilience … reducing poverty … encouraging connection

Recipe for a Great Day

1. Stop in to the SIRCH Bakery for delicious scones, pies and artisan bread.

2. Buy a friend an affordable, homemade lunch at the Bistro.

3. Then take a “Grab and Go” lasagna, pot pie or butter chicken home for dinner. What a great day!

Once upon a time a psychology professor walked around on a stage while teaching stress management principles to As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the typical “glass half empty or glass half full” question. Instead, with a smile on her face, the professor asked, “How heavy is this glass of water I’m holding?”

Students shouted out answers ranging from eight ounces to a couple pounds. She replied, “From my perspective, the absolute weight of this glass doesn’t matter. It all depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute or two, it’s fairly light. If I hold it for an hour straight, its weight might make my arm ache a little. If I hold it for a day straight, my arm will likely cramp up and feel completely numb and paralyzed, forcing me to drop the glass to the floor. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me.”

As the class nodded their heads in agreement, she continued, “Your stresses and worries in life are very much like this glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and you begin to ache a little. Think about them all day long, and you will feel completely numb and paralyzed incapable of doing anything else until you drop them.”

It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses and worries. No matter what happens during the day, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don’t carry them through the night and into the next day with you. If you still feel the weight of yesterday’s stress, it’s a strong sign that it’s time to put the glass down.

SIRCH Bistro & Bakery

We continue to offer the community a safe and welcoming space to meet with friends and neighbours, with a smaller (delicious) Bistro menu. Extra portions of the hot lunch meals, and homemade soups, are being packaged and frozen daily for Community Kitchen (meals we give free to those in need). In other 2 Tues to Friday; Sat 10 2.

were the hit of our Farmer’s Market booth this summer, and continue to be a popular item (chocolate strawberry, cheddar kale, blueberry orange ...). You’ll also find fresh baked arti-

space we now have a few tables, a couple of comfy chairs, a selection of board games so you can relax with a coffee and chat with other people. We will be adding free afternoon or evening “events” soon. We also have affordable frozen grab & go meals, breads, frozen doughs and more.

Ladies Night December 8th

Our vendors will be back on Dec. 8th to partake in the annual Downtown Haliburton BIA Ladies Shopping Night. The evening will feature beautiful items for sale, refreshments and a chance to support your community artisans.

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Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Add the carrots, onion and garlic to a sheet pan/tray and spread out evenly. Drizzle with vegetable oil and an even sprinkling of salt, white pepper and cumin, mix until coated. Roast in the oven for 35 minutes, until tender. To a large saucepan add the vegetable stock and bring to a simmer. Add the carrots, onions, garlic squeezed out of its peel, ginger and bay leaf. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf. Using an immersion blender, or add to blender in batches, blend soup until it is smooth and reaches the desired consistency. If it is too thick, add more stock. Check for seasoning and adjust to your taste.

Serve garnished with chopped fresh chives and sour cream.

Bistro & Bakery staff. Denise works in the Bistro and loves making soups from scratch. This Carrot & Ginger soup is perfect to enjoy on a cold and brisk day.

Community Kitchen

SIRCH Community Kitchen is a true collaboration of community from generous gardeners and growers who help by donating produce, to volunteers who help prep and package the food with oversight from one of our chefs, to the organizations who help us distribute the free meals to those in need, and the generous donors who make this program happen at all it takes a community. Meals, hearty soups, desserts are given FREE to those in need.

Together we make quite an impact:

Month 2022 Servings of Food Produced April - October Totals

Since COVID March 2020 present

April 657 657 41,144 May 665 1,322 41,809 June 888 2,210 42,697 July 1,279 3,489 43,976 August 693 4,142 44,669 September 760 4,942 45,429 October 1,490 6,432 46,919

Volunteers helped prepare 260 containers of applesauce this fall for seniors who don’t often get enough fruit during the winter months. The apples were generously donated by two local growers, Barb and Wayne Fawcett and Kara and Matt Wesley.

Community Kitchen also made turkey dinners for Thanksgiving, using local turkeys from Killara Station. We thank the community for your ongoing support of this amazing collaboration.

Lunch Is On Us

The goal of Lunch Is On Us is: a) to help create more resilient, equitable communities for individuals and families; b) to improve mental well-being through connection with others and; c) to help address nutritional needs in the community by offering healthy meals.

Grab a seat every Wednesday, from November 2, 2022 to March 29, 2023 at the SIRCH Bistro. Bring your kids, parents, friends or just yourself. Lunch is by donation, so pay what you can. Wednesdays only, 11 2 or until the food is gone. (Take-out & baking still available at regular prices.)

In the summer of 2022, we ran School’s Cool programs in 6 different schools, thanks to one-time funding from the Trillium Lakelands District School Board. Over 80 children, 3 5, took the 6 week program to help address learning gaps experienced in kindergarten, or to prepare for JK.

Parents registering their children were mostly concerned about 4 areas: speech & language; a delay in letter, number and shape recognition; lacking confidence; and/or struggling socially. The gains for children over the summer were immense children had an average gain of 62 weeks in developmental skills, with the top ones being self help, language and social skills. (Note: Evaluation results are compiled by a thirdparty evaluator.)

This fall, through our CAPC program, we will be piloting an Online School’s Cool program, previously piloted in Ottawa. Both the in person and online programs were created by SIRCH.

Thrift Warehouse - Haliburton & Bancroft

The Thrift Warehouses are thrilled to welcome the addition of a large van, to help with getting our amazing donations into the stores and out to the public.

The van is also used to deliver Community Kitchen meals to partner organizations.

Training

A second Basics of Carpentry program started this fall. This time, trainees are building a Bunkie on site at Emmerson Lumber. Stop by to say hi!

Our thanks to the Homebuilders Association, Fleming College, and the many other community partners who continue to make this program a success.

SIRCH recently completed it’s first Time For A Change training program, which offered participants an opportunity to change career directions or find a new path to pursue. The program opened many doors for the participants, who came out with a much clearer idea of what they’d like to do.

In January we will be offering a Youth Training program in partnership with the Youth Hub and Fleming CREW, along with other organizations, aimed at youth under 25 who are graduating or have quit high school and who want to pursue full time employment.