This past weekend, I had the pleasure of taking part in an event that has been going on in my riding since 2008. The humanitarian group Kids Against Hunger held their annual One Million Meals Peterborough. Their original goal, back in 2008, was to make a million meals for those experiencing malnutrition. Volunteers each raised $65 to help pay for the food that was packed.

We had ground soy—because it’s higher in protein than meat—rice, a mix of ground vegetables and minerals and dehydrated vegetables. All the food was mixed together in a bag of about 400 grams. When you boil that with water for half an hour, it provides enough nutrition for six people for an entire day. And the genius of the process is that you don’t need to start with potable water. By boiling the water for half an hour, that makes it potable.

Speaker, more than 330 people volunteered their time to pack these bags, and I’m proud to announce that, by the end of the day, we had filled enough bags that we surpassed 900,000 meals made since 2008.

I want to give a big shout-out to the Drain Brothers, who will be warehousing the food until it can be shipped where it’s needed, and to EG Gray transport for shipping the cases of food to the port for us. Saturday’s food is destined for Haiti to help in that humanitarian effort.

I really want to thank all of the volunteers who gave their time to make a difference for people they will never meet.

Next week, the Legislature will not be sitting while we observe Remembrance Day week. As we reflect on Remembrance Day, I’d like to speak about a group that has largely been forgotten.

Although First Nation individuals were exempt from conscription, between the First and Second World War, more than 7,000 First Nation individuals voluntarily joined the Canadian Forces to fight for our freedom. At the time, if someone lived off-reserve for more than four years, that person could lose their official Indian status. For many individuals, stationed overseas, fighting for Canada, Canada stripped them of their Indian status, yet many of those individuals continued to give back to their community when they returned to Canada.

Curve Lake First Nation in my riding demonstrated this. During the Second World War, every single eligible male over the age of 18 volunteered to fight for Canada. One of those volunteers was a gentleman named Murray Whetung. Mr. Whetung is someone that I’ve spoken about in this chamber a number of times. His role during the D-Day invasions was to keep the communication lines functioning.

When he returned to Curve Lake, he continued to give back to his community. He was known throughout Peterborough county and revered as an elder, a knowledge holder and a community volunteer. Later today, I will be reintroducing the Murray Whetung Community Service Award to ensure that the positive message he embodied about giving back to communities will be told to our youth.