Bonnyville's diversity was on full display at the Bonnyville Community Church, as its congregants and other locals gathered under one roof to celebrate their cultures through cuisine.
The church held its annual Feast of Nations last Sunday, featuring food from Trinidad and Tobago, Philippines and Canada. Pastor Ken Jagessar oversaw the preparation of the Trinidadian food, while four families who attend the church regularly made the Filipino cuisine.
“When we started this church 14 years ago we decided that food was going to be a big part of it because it seems that that that's one way of bringing the community together,” said Jagessar. “We have developed a reputation of being the food church in the community and I hope that we'll continue growing in this area.”
He added, “We love making people happy and one of the ways to make people happy is when they eat good food.”
Around 100 people attended the feast, which included spring rolls, pork stew, jerk chicken, chickpea curry, mashed potatoes and meatballs. There was also a desert table with generous portions of pie, tarts and cookies.
“We help each other and we cook our Filipino dishes that we want people to taste and enjoy every year,” said Evelyn Mondares, whose husband helped prepare the Filipino items. “For us Filipinos who are foreign people who came to Canada, we enjoy each others company with other cultures and it' a nice opportunity to know their culture and introduce our culture to them as well.”
Events that are representative of Bonnyville's dynamic and multicultural community are important to the church.
“We have several different nationalities represented in our church that attend regularly and for that reason I think we have a great thing to offer the community and just to our own people, just to acknowledge that we appreciate them being here,” said Rachelle Scott, a co-organizer. “I hope that the community will be more aware that we do it and come support us.”
In addition to the feast, there was a silent auction and people could pack up leftovers to take home with them.
“We like as many to come as possible because as you see we have more than enough food here to feed another 100 people at least,” Jagessar noted.
The feast is also the only in-house fundraiser that the church does over the course of the year. Bonnyville Community Church will also host the International Food Extravaganza on Feb. 15, and proceeds from that much larger event will go to not-for-profits.
