Food And Drinks

Comeback Society ‘reclaiming’ Indigenous connections in Regina

By Frank C. Bonner

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Volunteers have delivered more than 14,000 warm meals to Regina’s vulnerable populations since last November.

Comeback Society CEO Alicia Morrow holds donated garments for this year's winter clothing drive, which began Sunday at partnered pick-up and drop-off location The Everyday Kitchen. Comeback Society CEO Alicia Morrow holds donated garments for this year’s winter clothing drive, which began Sunday at partnered pick-up and drop-off location The Everyday Kitchen. Photo by KAYLE NEIS /Regina Leader-Post

When Alicia Morrow thinks about reconciliation, she thinks about the act of reconnecting.

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Morrow is one of two founders of a non-profit group called The Comeback Society, which is working to reclaim and deliver connections to Indigenous culture in Regina.

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The idea began as a podcast with her sister Lexie Obey, to talk about the experience of reclaiming Indigenous culture in an urban setting. Morrow, similar to her sister, is a member of Peepeekisis Cree Nation but grew up in a north central neighbourhood of Regina.

In speaking with guests from across Canada, the pair found that there was a commonality in the Indigenous experience of living within city limits, a need for connectedness but a lack of culturally informed spaces.

“We said, what if we incorporated as a non-profit and shift our focus to creating programming, creating culture accessibility,” said Morrow.

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It sparked a passion, and The Comeback Society took root. The vision, said Morrow, involves cultural reconnection, sustainability, and support for the Indigenous community in a society that has colonized their existence.

“Part of the reason we’re called The Comeback Society is because we’re coming home. We were never gone; we’re just coming back,” said Morrow.

The first opportunity for action came in November 2021, as the sisters considered how they could help the dozens of individuals gathered in the encampment known as Camp Hope.

“One of the fondest memories, between my sister and I, was a bowl of soup and bannock at our kookum’s houses, our aunties’ houses,” said Morrow.

“It’s comforting, to us, to have that with our family, and we thought, what if for all these people who are struggling and facing these barriers, what if we made them a bowl of soup and bannock?”

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For the final two days before the camp disassembled, the two prepared and handed out the warm meal of their childhood to those gathered in Pepsi Park. Once dispersed, the idea continued.

“Camp Hope was more than just a place to sleep. It ended up becoming a central place for food access (and) we realized there was a huge food security crisis in the city,” said Morrow.

With help from volunteers, the Comeback Society continued offering what they could to those in need, making and handing out warm meals in the downtown core every Sunday.

Since last fall, the meal program has delivered more than 14,000 meals in a little under a year, prepared by volunteer hands using the kitchen at the Regina Food Bank.

During that time, the non-profit also began collecting donations of wish list items, putting together toiletry kits and handing out clothing. Volunteers provide Naloxone kits and run cultural workshops aimed at reclaiming Indigenous identity.

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Everything is offered without barriers like paperwork, sobriety restrictions or pickup limits, said Morrow, as an effort to do non-profit work differently.

“We’re not here to police anything. We say take as many (meals or kits) as you need,” said Morrow. “I think that’s why our program has become so successful. We really are here to meet people where they’re at.”

It’s thanks to the help of a passionate community, said Morrow, as The Comeback Society currently runs as a grassroots group — meaning no grants and no government support.

Donations have been quintessential, said Morrow, with the non-profit relying on local partners and its social media following to keep all of its programs running.

Part of this was because Morrow wanted to ensure the idea was sustainable, long-term, but the other piece was wanting to make connections within the local community, in the spirit of reconciliation.

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“I wanted to see how far we can go to create something on the good faith of others, and it’s worked really well,” said Morrow. “It’s really humbling, to know how much support we have.”

And it is working. The Comeback Society works with multitudes of partners and the vision for the future is big, said Morrow. She sees a two-year plan, which includes shifting the meal program to be self-sustaining, using wild meat harvested with no-waste practice and growing its own veggies.

She’s also elbow deep in expanding offered cultural opportunities, organized and led by Indigenous voices working through The Comeback Society to deliver workshops and developing youth programs.

“It’s not hard to do; you just need to be doing it in a good way,” said Morrow. “It’s amazing to see that we get to connect people with the proper cultural specialists to be able to provide programming from an Indigenous view.”

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