More than $21 million to be given to Montreal communities to fight poverty, social exclusion – Montreal
Paule & Émard is not your typical grocery store.
It is actually the former garage of a nonprofit organization and is about 600 square feet.
The store was born out of a need to provide fresh local food and has everything: dairy products, fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, non-perishable food items, All are low priced and in a neighboring area with no access to any.
The store is run by la Maison d’Entraide St. Paul & Emard, an organization whose mission is to help lower-income citizens in their communities.
Marcela Cid, executive director at La Maison d’Entraide St. Paul & Emard, said: “We knew we had to open a place where we could facilitate access to fresh food for the neighborhood.
The market is open to everyone, but is closed on Mondays, so that 90 families, who are the organization’s customers, can shop here and get food at a 60% discount.
The store is part of a broader project to combat food insecurity among isolated or vulnerable families and people.
It’s one of dozens of initiatives made possible through Centraide’s collective impact project.
Centraide is an organization with a mission to combat social issues like poverty and social exclusion.
Claude Pinard, president and CEO of the Centraide of Greater Montreal, said: “This is a bottom-up approach where you can think of neighborhoods thinking about solutions to problems. problems they face and together solve those social problems”.
In its early stages, the collective impact project helped create initiatives in 17 different neighborhoods.
On Wednesday, it announced phase two, which means $21.5 million in new investment spanning existing neighborhoods plus 15 new communities.
For organizations like La Maison d’Entraide, that kind of financing means concrete change.
“I feel we can make a difference in society,” says Cid. “I feel we can achieve goals that we have had for a long time that we see a need for in the neighborhood, and this kind of financing helps us work together and find the answers. the best word for those needs.”
Cid said the organization will reapply for more funding with the announcement of phase two.
The money will go to employees, find more volunteers and extend the store’s operating hours, she said, to help better serve the community.
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