By Trevor Greenway
The La Pêche family spark house – translated etincille in French – is finally getting a home – its own home, where it can run its successful Meals on Wheels program, offer cooking classes, art days and parenting support for families.
“We are currently in the [Masham] arena and we have been there for the last few years, but we have a construction project to build our own building and it will be really perfect for all our needs,” said Daniel Lafleche, the director-general at Maison de la famille l’Étincelle in La Pêche. “We have an amazing team, but they are always on the road and La Pêche is really big, so we do want to be a little bit more centralized.”
Lafleche said he doesn’t have a timeline for construction of the Maison’s new home, but said shovels will go in the ground as soon as the ground thaws, sometime in April. The home will be built just behind the Masham arena.
Maison de la famille l’Étincelle is a non-profit organization under the umbrella of The Quebec Federation of Family Community Organizations. This federation offers economic support and social development aid to families in Quebec and works with close to 260 family community organizations, like Maison de la famille l’Étincelle, to offer everything from cheap groceries to low-income households, social events for families and a Meals on Wheels food-delivery service for seniors in the region.
It’s the latter initiative that is the home’s bread and butter, as more than 30 seniors in La Pêche get fresh prepared meals delivered to their door five times a week, and Lafleche said he has made a constant effort to ensure the food is delicious.
“I know food,” said Lafleche, explaining that he worked in food management for 50 years and has built relationships with local food purveyors to expand the program’s offering. He said through these connections, as well as funding his organization received from the Centre intégré de santé et des services sociaux de l’Outaouais, the home is able to keep food costs down. By keeping costs low, Lafleche said he can spend a bit more on products for his Meals on Wheels program and add special monthly treats to the meals.
Lafleche said he has a full-time cook on staff, and he’s coached the chef to add a little flare to the weekly meals.
“This is a little bit like cafeteria food, but it has to be good, it needs to be tasty,” said Lafleche. “We are able to have salmon once a month, and people love it. Salmon is expensive.”
The Meals on Wheels program offers seniors in La Pêche several menu choices every week, which includes a soup, a main course and a dessert. Maison L’Étincelle delivers 3,000 fresh meals every year to low-income seniors.
Aside from food delivery, the family home also boasts weekly events for families and adults. There is the Collective Kitchen, where families can show up and bake cookies, make fresh pasta and cook a meal together without having to pay for the expensive ingredients. Last week, several families made choco squares.
Lafleche said that with inflation and the cost of gas and groceries rising, Maison l’Étincelle is seeing more folks from different socioeconomic backgrounds take advantage of their services – everything from free family movie nights to adult creativity nights like paint night and their weekly food bank. Every Thursday the Maison l’Étincelle offers free food to the community that is near its expiry date. It also receives donations from IGA and local food banks in Chelsea, Cantley and Gatineau.
“For the food bank, I have people that make over $80,000 that come,” said Lafleche. “We have people who own businesses and are struggling. Everyone needs it.”
There seems to always be something happening at Maison l’Étincelle, and Lafleche said his organization is able to keep families busy through funding from multiple partners. The yearly budget is typically around $350,000, with funding coming from the province ($180K), Centraide ($17–20K) and smaller contracts, including CISSSO, which funds Maison l’Étincelle’s Meals on Wheels.
Check out Maison de la famille l’Étincelle on Facebook and take part in one of their weekly events. All services are available in both French and English.