Resto Marché

By Joel Ceausu
The Suburban

At the crossroads of inflation, food deserts, soaring rents, unemployment, housing shortages and other poverty factors, lies a single plate of food that may — or may not – be served to someone who is hungry.

Those realities made a hard decision harder, as NDG’s Depot cut back its four-day Resto Marché meal program by a full day, meaning 300 fewer meals will likely be served each week in the west end.

The announcement shocked many but was no surprise to those paying attention. “We saw it coming,” executive director Tasha Lackman told The Suburban. “It was a hard decision and we’re afraid there’s going to be more hard announcements coming.”

The 10-year-old meal program is one of a dozen programs at the Depot, founded in a church basement in 1986 to meet emergency needs. The scale of demand, effectively tripling in two years, and scarcity of resources created a perfect storm. “A year ago, 200 people was considered a really busy day.” Now, 300 per day is normal. Normal maybe, but not tenable.

“We’re working by trial and error to ensure we serve the community with dignity and respect,” says Lackman. “If we had unlimited resources we could hire more people,” noting 25-30 volunteers help out daily. Despite shaving off a little more time on two of the three remaining days to lighten the load for volunteers and staff, they still serve about 900 meals weekly.

The team is “working to the bone, doing unpaid overtime, and drained,” with relentless pressure to turn over tables and serve more. “You’re not able to connect, rushing through the space waiting on tables, asking people to leave. People get impatient and it creates conflict.”

Depot fundraising efforts grew their budget (from $2.5 million to $4 million over a few years) with indexed provincial funding comprising some 3.5%. Local groups are pushing Quebec to boost funding for food security organizations, as food costs outpaced inflation while demand tripled. “If they could boost it 50%, it could take the pressure off.” Last fiscal year contributions from all governments amounted to slightly more than 17% of their budget, the balance from Centraide, private and public foundations, corporate and some 2,000 individual donors.

It’s a major, but necessary hustle. Last year the Depot received some $450,000 worth of food from Moisson Montréal and had to purchase $920,000 more across all its programs. “We spend a tremendous amount of time and effort fundraising, not on our core mission.” Sadly, says Lackman, philanthropy will never resolve food insecurity. “The call to action is to the government. With 25% of Canadians food insecure, every group working in food security recognizes these organizations are underfunded, and we’re all making these painful decisions.”

In January, the Depot stopped accepting new families for food baskets, receiving 100-150 applications every month with a waiting list of 500 families. They “whittled it down” with temporary extended hours and extra shifts to some 150 waiting families.

“Corrie,” 42, gets one weekly meal here, another two downtown. “There are people who will have to scramble,” she told The Suburban. “There are resources around Montreal if you’re hungry, but it takes lots of energy to get them and keep hoping life gets better.”

“It’s not the obligations of community organizations and philanthropy to solve food insecurity,” says Lackman. “It’s about income, about not having enough money to buy food.” n