Unique Fraser Valley grocery store offers a hand-up to those facing food insecurity

A unique Fraser Valley grocery store is helping people struggling to make ends meet.

It looks like a boutique grocery store, but nothing in it costs more than $5.

The Gathering Markit in Abbotsford is uniquely designed to help people facing temporary food insecurity.

That includes people like Andrea Sigmund. Three years ago, she found herself in a tough spot.

“I suddenly became a single mom to three littles—two toddlers and a newborn baby,” Sigmund explained.

She worried about how she would afford to feed her family.

“Sometimes it can be really hard to ask for help,” she said.

She was referred to the Gathering Markit, which was started by another mom, Hieke Morton, who also understands what food insecurity feels like.

“When my kids were little, we struggled to put food on the table,” recalled Morton.

“As a mom, it is one of the hardest things to admit that you aren’t able to feed your own children. And I had to rely on hand-outs and I hated every single minute of that,” she said.

Now a Red Seal chef, Morton used her skills to create the Gathering Markit, a non-profit grocery store with a welcoming atmosphere, that’s designed to offer a hand-up rather than a hand-out.

“Our families tend to fall between the cracks. They’re not who you would think of, that would need to use a food bank or a free service of food,” she explained.

“They’re families that don’t want to go that route, but they can not quite afford a retail grocery store,” Morton said.

Tucked inside a church, the Gathering Markit provides families with affordable, healthy food choices at two locations.

“So if you have $30 or $40 a week to spend on groceries, that is enough to make sure you have food for your family for the entire week,” she said.

Every week, volunteers work to create meal kits with donated surplus food.

“Our meal kits will serve a family of four for only five bucks,” Morton said.

“It’s a little bit like a Chef’s Plate, so everything is prepared, measured out for you,” she said, adding that a simple recipe is provided with each kit.

Meal kits range from chicken and pepper fajitas to black bean burritos. There are also baking kits, smoothie kits and breakfast kits.

Since launching three years ago, Gathering Markit has helped provide more than 51,000 meals and used more than 82,000 pounds of food that would have otherwise been wasted.

But Gathering Markit provides more than just food, it also provides people with a sense of dignity.

“These people are here to love on you, to help you, to support you,” said Sigmund.

Morton said that for her, “there’s actually a lot of healing in this process, to walk alongside moms and genuinely know what it’s like to be in your position,” she said.

She said she didn’t want a space that looked like a warehouse, but rather somewhere warm and welcoming with fresh flowers and fresh coffee and cookies for shoppers.

“There’s someone who knows you by name and you get to shop in a beautiful environment. It gives you a sense of dignity. You feel like you have worth again and that is a huge part of what the market is all about,” Morton said.

She said those who use the market are referred by different agencies and given a one-year membership. Right now, the market serves 110 families.

Many of the members are single moms, but the market serves a broad number of groups.

“Some grandparents raising grandchildren on a very, very fixed income. We have some single dads. We actually have some individuals as well. Anyone experiencing a temporary financial challenge is a good fit for Markit,” she said.