As summer begins to wind down and Moose Jaw turns its attention toward another school year, the work at Hunger in Moose Jaw is just getting started.

At the Yara Community Gardens facilitated by Hunger in Moose Jaw, the growing season may have been a little slower than usual this year but the gardens themselves have been producing well waiting for harvesting.

“We are still growing and harvesting a few things, but everything is coming late,” said Sharla Sept, Executive Director of Hunger in Moose Jaw. “But the good news is all plots were filled this year and so were the garden boxes.”

That is good news for a program that has become an important part of food security and community life in Moose Jaw.

The Yara Community Gardens were first established in 2006 and joined Hunger in Moose Jaw in 2012. Today, the program includes approximately 140 individual garden plots at three locations throughout the city, giving residents an opportunity to grow their own fresh, local food.  But the gardens aren’t simply about renting a patch of soil.  Hunger in Moose Jaw maintains two plots of its own, and the vegetables grown there go directly back into helping people in the community.

“We plant two plots ourselves and that stuff is used from the office to distribute to those who need,” Sept explained.

As one growing season begins to wind down, another very different season is about to begin for Hunger in Moose Jaw, the return of school and its long-running child nutrition program.  For more than 30 years, the organization has been helping ensure Moose Jaw children have access to nutritious, well-rounded lunches at school.

Last school year ended with approximately 400 lunches being provided each school day.

With classes yet to resume, Sept said it is too early to know whether that number will increase again this fall.

“We ended at about 400 lunches last year and now we will just have to wait until the school season starts to see what the numbers are this year.”

Four hundred lunches a day adds up quickly — roughly 2,000 lunches in a five-day school week — and food prices certainly haven’t been moving in a positive direction.   Yet Sept remains optimistic.

“We have excellent funding and great community support,” she said. “Four hundred is a good number for us due to the great community support and community partnerships.”

That support comes in many forms.  Large corporate contributions are important, but so are the small fundraisers, local businesses, service organizations and individuals who simply decide they want to help.

“We also get lots of support from small fundraisers to personal donations and also the corporate donations, so we currently have great backing in the community,” Sept said.

Perhaps that is one of the reasons Hunger in Moose Jaw has been able to continue doing what it does for more than three decades.

The organization currently operates with approximately 13 staff members across its programs, but volunteers remain an important part of keeping everything moving.

At the moment, there is a particular need for volunteer drivers to deliver lunches to Moose Jaw schools, as well as volunteers to help pack the lunches each day.

This fall will focus its fundraising attention to the I Bought Lunch campaign, which begins October 9. Unfortunately, the organization will not hold its fabric sale fundraiser this year, although Sept said it had been a successful fundraiser in the past.

Pumpkin Festival Returns September 12

The annual Pumpkin Festival will be held Saturday, September 12, 2026, at the Yara Community Gardens in the 900 block of Grey Avenue.

It is one of those easy and enjoyable community events that seems to work at this time of the year, with families, food, a little fun and lots of pumpkins for purchase.

“We enjoy it,” Sept said.

The festival will include games for the kids, the pumpkin patch and pumpkins available for sale. Chili and hotdogs will also be served by donation.  And anyone hoping to take home a pumpkin should have plenty to choose from.  Sept confirmed there are lots of pumpkins this year.

Behind the pumpkins, lunches and gardens, this is a story of a community organization that has been around since 1993 and has spent more than three decades trying to make sure children and families don’t fall through the cracks.

Asked what continues to surprise or encourage her most after all those years, Sept didn’t point to one large donation or one particular program.  She pointed to Moose Jaw itself.

“When we have a need it seems to always be filled,” she said, “and every single dollar counts that comes through the door.”

At Hunger in Moose Jaw, vegetables and pumpkins will come out of the gardens over the next few weeks but the work won’t stop.  There will still be lunches to make, boxes to pack, school kids to feed and families who could use a hand.

And, if the past 30-plus years are any indication, there will also be a community willing to step forward when the need arises.

For more information about Hunger in Moose Jaw, its programs, volunteering or ways to help, visit hungerinmoosejaw.org.

By Joan Ritchie

Moose Jaw Express