EmberJs : How to pass data to a component without using a controller

The documentation for emberjs clearly states that you should not use controllers, however sometimes you need to pass data into a component that is not the model for the corresponding route. For instance in an application I am working on I want to retrieve a list of records from the store and display them in a component so the user can select them as an attribute of the model for that route.

The advice I have received on this is to either create a controller and use it to retrieve the list in question or to add the list of records as an attribute of the model for that route, but since the former is inadvisable and the latter only makes sense if the item in question is a logical part of the model's schema (and therefore should probably be in there anyway) I am left feeling confused about how this apparently simple thing ought to be done. Can anyone help?