Kitchen notes de notre cuisine

- LE FRANÇAIS SUIT -

Our Community Depanneur is well stocked with home-made frozen foods that can be yours for a moderate price. Right now there are several kinds of soup, from creamy to chunky, available at $4 a litre container, or $2.50 for a 1/2 litre. There is meat sauce for pasta at $6, or tomato sauce for $3. Also muffins, small cheescakes and chickpea brownies! On the Community shelves right next to the freezer you will find strawberry and blackberry jam prepared this past week. Come by during office hours and take home supper.

For the Welcome Wednesday meal on May 23rd, we will have our Verdun deputy to the National Assembly, Mme. Isabelle Melançon and her team working in the kitchen. Under the supervision of chef Léonore, they will do the cooking, serving and clean-up. Lunch is served at 12:30. Pay-what-you-can.
If you have a group of 4 or 5 that would like to have a fun team-building experience, please contact the office about volunteering in the kitchen for Welcome Wednesday.

Notre Dépanneur communautaire est plein de plats congelés disponibles à prix modiques. Présentement il y a des soupes et des potages à 4$ le litre ou 2.50$ le demi-litre; de la sauce tomate à 3$ ou sauce viande à 6$; de plus, il ya des muffins, des petits gâteaux au fromage et des brownies au pois chiches. Sur les étagères à côté du congélateur vous trouverez de la confiture de fraises et de mûres. Vous n'avez qu'à passer durant les heures d'ouverture pour emporter le souper!

Pour le repas communautaire mercredi prochain (23 mai) notre député de Verdun à l'assemblée nationale, Mme. Isabelle Melançon sera dans la cuisine avec son équipe. Sous la supervision de chef Léonore, ils s'occuperont de cuisiner, de servir et du ménage. Le repas est servi à 12h30. Donnez selon vos moyens.
Si vous avez une équipe de 4 ou 5 personnes qui voudrait faire du bénévolat en apprenant et en s'amusant dans la cuisine veuillez contacter le bureau.

Mini-Market May 9th

Still haven't stopped by the Mission on a Welcome Wednesday? It's a sight to behold! Baskets of fresh produce on display, cooks working away in the kitchen, lots of friendly faces coming and going! 
The next Mini-market is from 10:30 to 3:30 next Wednesday. The best way to get the fruit and veggies you want at affordable prices is to pre-order using the attached form. Download to see what will be on offer:

Comment ça vous n'avez pas encore passé à la Mission un «Mercredi M'Attend»? C'est quelque chose! Des paniers de fruits et légumes à vendre, des cuisiniers très occupés dans la cuisine, plein de va-et-vient et du monde génial !
Le prochain Mini-marché est mercredi prochain de 10H30 à 15H30. Pour s'assurer d'avoir les fruits et légumes qu'on veut, on est mieux de pré-commander avec le formulaire ci-joint. Télécharger pour savoir ce qui sera offert:

Minister's Message: Living With Emptiness

Living with Emptiness (and an empty fridge)

When I opened the door to the Self-Serve fridge/Libre Frigo yesterday, it was empty. It’s the very first time I saw people opening it to find nothing on its shelves.

We started this fridge as a way of sharing with community from our abundance. We hoped that others would bring and put into the fridge from their kitchens as well. It’s a great idea. But offering free food seems easier than educating about how we all contribute to the wider good.

Giving free food to a family in need is easier than having the conversation to actually listen to their needs, to sit across the table and hear their story. Converting to healthy choices is more difficult than accepting the status quo. What do we hear from an empty fridge? 

We affirm a vision of food for all and are grateful for all that we do. 

SouthWest is where:

-we offer a place of belonging and room at all our table gatherings
-we benefit from a professional cook and a team of volunteers in the kitchen
-we transform the donations we receive from Harvest Montréal ($19,000 in value in a year) into community meals on Wednesday and Messy Church
-we support the Mini Market as a sustainable access to fresh fruits and vegetables, at cost, for the community  

SouthWest is about community helping community. We welcome all, we offer what we can and invite all into a circle of grace, hope and love. We follow the example of Jesus in our radical hospitality. 

SouthWest is also accepting emptiness, accepting that our financial and human resources have limits. Our energies cannot be everywhere nor can we do everything. 

The empty fridge may be a gentle reminder to us that it is only in engaging in conversation our membership, adherents and those receiving our services that we will find the way forward. We need everyone contributing with monies, ideas, time, focus and a vision of a generous table. 

Let’s put what we can in the community fridge but stay focused on sustainability: building a transformative community is a costly enterprise. It needs both vison and the means to fund that vision. This is our present challenge and needs all of our help. 

In Mary's song of praise she sings:

My heart sings praises to the Lord//God has filled the hungry with good things//
God has kept the promises made to our ancestors//and showed mercy. 
(extracts from Luke 1: 46-55)

May we feel our hunger God, our emptiness, so you may fill us with good things! 

Rev. David 

Harvest Montreal: Update

A few weeks ago (March 2nd) I mentioned Harvest/ Moisson Montreal in a Blog post. Recently, we received this letter acknowledging us as a partner in the battle against food insecurity on the Island of Montreal. We are grateful to Harvest Montreal for the nearly 3000 kilograms of food representing a value of nearly $20000 that we got from them in the fiscal year from April 2017 to March 2018.
We must also acknowledge the hard work of SouthWest staff and - mostly - volunteers - who make the trip to the warehouse to collect the food, load and unload the van, sort through the food when it gets to the Mission and quickly transform anything that would otherwise go bad. 
This partnership with Moisson Montreal allows us to operate a "Self-serve" fridge and pantry, to offer prepared foods at reasonable prices through our Community depanneur, as well as keeping costs down for our weekly Community meals and Meli-Melo.

Thank you!

Mini-marché April 25 avril

Word is getting out about our Welcome Wednesdays. The more people come for the community lunch, the more produce gets sold at the Mini-market. Ordering ahead is always your best bet if you don`t want to be disappointed. Lunch is served at 12:30. The market is open from 10:30 to 3:30. Don't forget your reusable shopping bags!

Want to Join a Collective Garden?

Hello to all,

The Dawson Boys And Girls Club's ‘’Un plant de tomate à la fois’’ project would like to invite you into the garden this summer!

Sharing, meeting, learning and educating while lowering your grocery bill with wholesome, fresh, local produce is what Un plant de tomate à la fois' collective gardens are all about !

How does it work?

Each garden has an official weekly schedule when gardeners meet to work (and harvest). That way, all garden tasks and responsibilities are shared between gardeners, including watering which is done outside the time frame. No more overwhelming work for one person only, casual nice ambiance and learning opportunity included ! An animator is also present to provide proper guidance and horticultural resources. Open to all, kid friendly (accompanied by a adult).

*You may consult the location and the weekly time frames for each of our gardens in the Sign-up form bellow. You may consult it without having to complete sign-up.

Questions, or not sure of your garden choice ? Write to plant.de.tomate@gmail.com or call 514-767-9967 ext. 235. We’ll be happy to help !

TO SIGN-UP :

Sincerely ,

The Un plant de tomate à la fois team

Réal Bonneville | Coordinateur

Repaire jeunesse Dawson

666 rue Woodland, Verdun, QC H4H 1G1 carte

t: 514-767-9967 ext.235

Mini-Market April 11

Every second Wednesday you can buy fresh produce at the Mission at very competitive prices. The fruit and vegetables are delivered that morning and the market is on from 10:30AM to 3:30PM. Most items are sold by weight so you can buy as little or as much as you need. Join us next Wednesday, the 11th of April. Click on the button below to see what will be on offer this week.

Empty Bowls Fundraiser

The Mission is participating in the Empty Bowls fundraiser event organized by Maison d'entraide Saint-Paul-Émard on Saturday, April 7th.

The Mission is providing 200 bread buns to go with the soup and cheese that will be sold at Saint-Jean-de-Matha church.

The fundraiser goes like this: for $25, you buy a bowl made by a local artisan. When you come and pick it up, it's given to you with soup inside. Eat the soup, bring the bowl home. Voilà!

The Maison d'entraide St-Paul & Emard is at 6831 rue d'Aragon. The event takes place there Saturday from 11AM to 3PM.

Mini-Market March 28

Every second Wednesday you can buy fresh produce at the Mission at very competitive prices. The fruit and vegetables are delivered that morning and the market is on from 10:30AM to 3:30PM. Most items are sold by weight so you can buy as little or as much as you need. Join us next Wednesday, the 28th of March. Click on the button below to see what will be on offer this week.

Support Needed for Breakfast Club

Our Breakfast Club, which feeds about 70 Verdun Elementary School kids every school day, is short of a few items this month: orange juice (big cartons, not individual boxes), brown paper "lunch" bags, and plain Eggo waffles (or store brand). Items can be dropped off at church on Sunday, or at Meli-Melo between 12:30 and 2:30 Sunday at the Mission.

They are also still in need of volunteers. Even if you can only give your time once in a while, please contact the office to be put in touch with Breakfast Club coordination. 514-768-6231.