The Islands Richelieu Club To Donate Christmas Food....

The Richelieu Club put the past weekend to good use by collecting the money to buy Christmas baskets of food. The amount of food they will buy surpassed all that was expected. Islanders generously contributed the equivalent of some hundred fish baskets full of food, explained the coordinator of the event, Jocelyn Thériault. This is 20% more that was donated last year.

Note: A fish basket is approximately thirty gallons, I would say..., maybe a little less.

The president of the Richelieu Club, Élie Chevrier, said that his part was the sale of tickets for a drawing, until the start of January, will allow for the addition of around ten baskets of a thousand dollars worth of perishable food baskets for Christmas. The distribution of the Christmas baskets, to the families with children in need, will commence around Saturday the 20th day of December.

I imagine that there are quite a few families that live under the poverty level, here on the Magdalen Islands. But not many, if any, go hungry or don't have at least the basic needs to survive well. Unlike on the mainland, if a recession or heaven forbid, a depression hit, the islands would suffer seriously, but food would still be plentiful because islanders have depended on the sea for their survival for centuries. The soil of the islands is rich and although not much of it is being used for farming, the potential for it's use is there.

Most people have regular jobs on the islands. Some full time, others work seasonally. There are a few who live on social assistance, drawn from the provincial government. Most of the seasonal workers do draw unemployment insurance from the Federal government, but many must repay the money when they start work in the spring. The islands economy has traditionally been based around fishing but for the past twenty years or so, the tourist industry has made leaps into a close second for the top spot for the economy. The salt mine probably runs third for employ ability. Then there are wide ranges of local business owners and their employees.