Ash Wednesday

At SouthWest, we don't always do things in a traditional way. Take the lead-up to Lent, next week. In the Christian tradition, Tuesday is Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, also known as Shrove Tuesday, when traditionally families ate rich, fatty foods to sort of "stock up" before the fasting of Lent. The extent of "fasting" varies among Christian groups, and often means giving up meat, or sweets, or alcohol - or all three - for the forty days leading up to Easter. In modern times we may give up things other than food: everything from cigarettes to social media.

Regardless of what you give up, the day after Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, is traditionally the first day or deprivation. I'm not sure when it started, but at SouthWest we like to do a mash-up of those two days on the Wednesday. So we invite all and sundry to enjoy pancakes and sausages in the church basement, followed by a simple celebration with ashes to officially start us on our Lenten journey. Rev. David will be back from vacation and we hope to see many of you out, weather permitting. After all, it's a SouthWest tradition!

Wednesday, February 14, pancakes at 6PM, followed by celebration.
1445 Clemenceau, Verdun

February at SouthWest Kitchens!

Already February, my kitchen friends!
It’s cold outside, oh yes, but so warm over a simmering saucepan: fancy a good kitchen sweat?!

PATCHING-UP CHORES

Our beautiful community kitchen needs love.
Last month, I told you about the dangerously dangling faucet and the dying kitchen counter. The list of repairs is getting longer : the walls need patches of plaster, the cupboard doors could definetely use a touch of paint, and – last and certainly not least – our big refrigerator is leaning forward, like the tower of Pisa.

The replacement of the sink, faucet and counter will be done very shortly by a professional. The other chores, however, could become the duty of a happy few who have painting, repairing and/or lifting skills. Any volunteers? Please let me know asap and I will find a date to suit everyone.

WHILE WAITING FOR LOVE

While waiting for the kitchen to receive the love he/she/it deserves (does a kitchen have a gender in English ?), I have to admit I’m a little reluctant to fit extra activities in the schedule, as I’m a little concerned a faucet incident is about to occur.
Hence, February will be another month without cooking workshops for adults – with two notable exceptions : community production workshops every Wednesday morning, and the Centre des femmes’s collective cooking workshop on Feb. 26th.
Talking about production and love, should anyone be reminded that St. Valentine’s Day is coming up ? For the occasion, I’d like to serve a special Valentine menu at Feb. 14th Welcome Wednesday community meal. I’m thinking chocolate for dessert, of course, and pork mole, a Mexican stew cooked in a hot pepper and cocoa sauce. Any other ideas ? Shoot them ! The menu is still in the making, nothing has been decided yet.

SPONSOR SOS
We are very lucky, at SouthWest, to be able to count on food donations from Harvest Montreal and our other partners – thanks to them, we are able to keep our grocery bills low, and offer meals at very gentle prices.
Milk and eggs are part of those ingredients we don’t have to buy anymore, thanks to our Breakfast Club coordinators who give us their surplusses. Cans of chick peas and other legumes come to us in such great quantities that we hardly know where to stock them anymore !
However, other basic ingredients are considered as small luxuries in our kitchen : unsalted butter, coco oil, milk and cream, olive oil, chocolate, nuts or specialty flours (buckwheat, rye, rice, etc.). For those products we are looking for sponsors. Maybe you could be one – and get the Mission a pound of butter when it’s on special offer at Pharmaprix – or maybe you know a local business owner who would like to help us out ? Please ask around: Verdun is a small community, and there’re many people out there who want to help. We just need to find them !

For the complete program of cooking activities at the Mission and the dates of the next community meals, please download the attached calendars, produced by Verdun’s food security table Verdun sans faim. The one on the left shows where to find community meals; the one on the right has information on collective kitchens and food security.

 Share the news, share the warmth !

En cuisine ce froid février

Février, amis des cuisines !
Il fait froid dehors, mais si chaud au-dessus du fourneau

CORVÉE DE RAFISTOLAGE

Notre belle cuisine communautaire a besoin d’amour.
Je vous parlais en janvier de la robinetterie mourante et du comptoir qui s’effrite. À cela, j’ose ajouter deux ou trois bricoles : le plâtre des murs s’écaille par endroits, les portes des armoires du bas sont branlantes et/ou tâchées par les coulures de bouffe (maudit curcuma); enfin, le meilleur pour la fin, notre grand réfrigérateur communautaire penche comme la tour de Pise !
En principe, le remplacement du comptoir et de la robinetterie va être réalisé par un professionnel, qui devrait faire la job dans les jours qui viennent. Le reste, en revanche, mériterait bien une petite corvée communautaire de rafistolage.
Qui se sent d’attaque ?
Pour remettre d’aplomb le réfrigérateur/tour de Pise, on me dit que ça va prendre au moins quatre personnes musclées et des crics hydrauliques. Pour le reste, ça nous prend des gens qui savent manier la truelle et/ou le pinceau.
Que ceux et celles qui sont intéressés me fassent signe rapidement, et je trouverai une date qui convient à tout le monde.

EN ATTENDANT L’AMOUR

En attendant que la cuisine reçoive l’amour qu’elle mérite, je vous avoue que je suis un peu réticente à surcharger le calendrier des activités, craintive que je suis de l’imminence d’un bris de tuyauterie.
Février sera donc encore un mois sans ateliers de cuisine pour adultes, autres que les habituelles périodes de production communautaire du mercredi matin et la cuisine collective du Centre des femmes le 26 février.
Parlant de production et d’amour, la Saint-Valentin s’en vient et, avec, un repas communautaire thématique. Je nous vois déjà, équipe de cuisine, paradant dans de beaux casques de bain roses à dentelle, servant à nos invités du chocolat, du chocolat et encore du chocolat… Plus sérieusement, je caresse l’idée d’un mole de porc, un plat mexicain traditionnel mijoté dans une sauce à base de piment et de cacao. C’est très bon J
Si la Saint-Valentin vous inspire autre chose, partagez vos envies avec moi : le menu du repas en est encore à ses premiers balbutiements et se prête encore très bien à tous les changements.

SOS COMMANDITES

Nous sommes extrêmement chanceux, à la Mission du Sud-Ouest, de pouvoir compter sur les dons de nourriture de Moisson Montréal et de nos autres partenaires pour réduire notre facture d’épicerie et offrir des repas et des plats pour emporter à des prix tout doux.
Parmi les choses qui ne figurent plus sur notre liste d’achats, il y a le lait et les œufs : les coordonnatrices du Club des petits déjeuners nous offrent leurs excédents et nous permettent ainsi de réaliser de substantielles économies. Il y a aussi les légumineuses – les fameux pois chiches – que nous récupérons en si grandes quantités qu’on finirait par ne plus savoir où les stocker.
Il y a en revanche d’autres aliments qui font figure de petits luxes dans notre cuisine : le beurre doux, l’huile, le lait et la crème de coco, l’huile d’olive, le chocolat, les noix ou encore les farines de spécialité (sarrasin, seigle, épeautre, riz, etc.). Pour ces produits-là, nous sommes à la recherche de commandites. Le commanditaire pourrait très bien être vous – « Tiens, le beurre doux est en spécial au Pharmaprix, j’en prends une livre pour la Mission » – ou une entreprise de votre connaissance : imaginez qu’un restaurateur de Verdun nous offre 10 livres de beurre par mois… On ne sait jamais, hein… parfois, il n’y a qu’à demander pour obtenir ! Alors si vous connaissez la personne à qui on pourrait faire la grande demande, levez la main bien haut J

Pour le programme complet des activités de février et les dates des repas communautaires, téléchargez les deux calendriers en pièces jointes, réalisés par Verdun sans faim, la table de concertation en sécurité alimentaire et en agriculture urbaine de Verdun. Celui à gauche indique où vous trouverez les repas communautaires et celui à la droite contient tout sur les cuisines collectives, ainsi que le dépannage alimentaire. N’hésitez pas à les faire tourner dans vos réseaux.

Bon temps des glaces !

Léonore Pion, chef cuisinière
leonore.pion@gmail.com

Mini-market January 31st/ Mini-marché 31 janvier

Winter wears on, but the fresh fruits and vegetables at SouthWest's Mini-market are a colourful reminder of summer.  Visit us at the Mission next Wednesday, January 31st, between 10:30 and 3:30 and get your produce for the week, at great low prices. And for a special treat to get you through the long winter evenings, why not try some of Sheila's home baking? You can also browse in our Community Dépanneur which includes shelves of preserves and a freezer full of soups and single-serving meals. Don't forget to join us for a tasty lunch at 12:30 prepared by the Dream Team Cuisine supervised by chef Léonore. We are becoming well-known in the community for these Welcome Wednesdays.
If weather or a disability prevents you from getting out, you can still place your market order using the downloadable form below and calling or e-mailing Sheila or Maurice. 

L'hiver est long, mais les fruits et légumes frais disponibles à notre Mini-marché rapellent les couleurs de l'été. Passez nous voir mercredi prochain, le 31 janvier, entre 10H30 et 15H30 et achetez vos épiceries pour la semaine à des prix qui font sourire. Gâtez-vous en goutant des patisseries maison de Sheila. Jetez un coup d'oeil également sur notre Dépanneur communautaire, consistant d'étagères de conserves et d'un congélateur plein de soupes et de plats délicieux en portions individuelles. Et bien sûr n'oubliez pas de prendre votre place à table à 12H30 pour un dîner préparé par le Dream team cuisine sous la direction de chef Léonore. Tous les deux semaines, Mercredi m'attend à SouthWest!
Si le mauvais temps ou la mobilité réduite vous empêche d'être parmi nous, vous pouvez toutefois placer une commande en téléchargeant le formulaire ci-dessous. Les livraisons sont possibles sur le territoire de Verdun.

Breakfast Literacy

In honour of International Literacy Day (Jan. 27) we had a team of volunteers come in this morning from RECLAIM literacy. Alphabet pancakes were on the menu!

Our Breakfast Club team was delighted with the gift of a new grill from RECLAIM Literacy (Joy Fyckes, Executive Director) and Literacy Quebec (Marg Legault, Executive Director)

Our Co-manager Sheila reports, "We now have 53  children  signed up with the Breakfast Club. On average we have 40 children per day who either walk or come by bus. The kids enjoy coming very much and are well fed with most coming back for seconds. Every Wednesday we have 2 volunteers from the company VORTEX in Pointe Claire which alternate from week to week. George O’Reilly and Sue Mooney volunteer every Monday and Friday, Kathy O’Halloran generally Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and Frank DeMontigny every day. "

Sheila, Sue (Co-Managers), Joy Fyckes (RECLAIM), Austen (volunteer) Frank (volunteer) and kneeling, Marg Legault (Literacy Quebec)

Frank is usually the first to arrive at the Mission in the morning and he is the one who clears the snow and/or ice making our entrance safe for kids and adults alike. Thank you Frank!

Sheila continues, "We always have fruit and yogurt for the kids and each day we serve something different such as grilled cheese, eggos, cereal, oatmeal, croissants, scrambled eggs and toast and pancakes and from time to time some surprises. The Breakfast Club gives the children a good start for a busy day."

At the end of Thursday's Literacy breakfast, each child received a loot bag from RECLAIM containing a box of alphabet Kraft Dinner, and a bag of Alpha-bits cereal, with the written message: "Breakfast time or dinner: when you practice reading you're a winner."

Mini-Market Jan. 17

Get your fresh produce at great prices at the Mission next Wednesday, 10:30AM to 3:30PM. Join us for lunch at 12:30 if you can. If you want to be sure to get the things you want, pre-order by calling or e-mailing Sheila.

Minister's Message : Transforming Community Through Food

In 2017, a grant of $10000 was received from the Erskine & American Fund through our Presbytery for Mission projects (particularly the commercial freezer). As our Office Coordinator and I write a request for 2018, some of the information gathered is good news to share with all:

Food security continues to be the heartbeat of SouthWest Mission. Our Food Hub includes Breakfast Club, Welcome Wednesdays (Mini-Market and Community Lunch), Collective cooking activities for all ages, and group purchasing.

Monies received from the Erskine and American fund in 2017 were an investment in our vision offering a radical inclusive hospitality that invites all, particularly our vulnerable population, into an experience of healthy, inclusive community.

In 2017 the Mini-Market was offered every two weeks in a sustainable model. Expenditures for fresh produce were $10,503.38 with revenues of $10,688.61. It averaged 30 individual shoppers feeding 55-60 people. Mini-Market was staffed entirely by a core Volunteer team of 4. We were able to offer longer hours in the summer months (10:30 am to 6:30 pm) to better accommodate 9-5 workers and to take advantage of the plentiful local merchandise.

In August we put our publicity budget to good use to print some 5000 postcards for distribution in the neighbourhood of the Mission. 30 Youth volunteers in town for Rendez-vous did the door-to-door distribution. We had a fantastic response!

The growth we experienced in 2017 has been mainly in Food transformation and distribution. This has been made possible by the presence of a Kitchen Coordinator  who began as a volunteer over a year ago and since September 2017 has been on the payroll at 20 hours a week through a Mission Support grant. Since having a “professional” Kitchen Coordinator, as well as adequate freezer space, we have been able to receive meat from Harvest Montreal for processing into community meals and take-out. The Welcome Wednesday community lunches (every two weeks with occasional lighter meals offered on the “off” weeks) have been very well received, bringing in an average of 42 people, and a total of $2094 in donations. A team of four cooks each week transformed food under the leadership of our kitchen co-ordinator with a total of 50 different volunteers participating in 2017.

Erskine funds in 2017 allowed us to realize the dream of a Community Dépanneur. Employing a commercial display freezer, we were able to offer nutritious soups and single-portion meals at suggested prices to anyone attending activities at the Mission or just dropping in. The Dépanneur has brought in some $1500 in donations since September, 2017. These prepared meals are taken out to seniors when requested and made available to the congregation on Sunday. In addition, any “extra” food we have (milk or bread from Breakfast Club, fresh vegetables not sold) goes into our Self-serve fridge, available at no cost to anyone needing it. 

We have reached more people with reduced mobility in the last year, although not exactly in the way we had foreseen. Deliveries were undertaken by a few volunteers throughout the year, but the SouthWest Boxing Day Community Turkey meal was the main event:

A total of 290 meals were provided to community at no cost, of which 149 were eaten in two sittings at the Mission.  The 40 volunteers that were involved in preparation, cooking, serving and delivering came from both the congregation, Mission and wider community. The 61 meals delivered to people with limited mobility included 3 local HLM's and 3 senior residences, and another 40 were taken out by people who attended the meal to shut-in family members and neighbours. There is an organic growing and transformation of community that is exciting, challenging, risk taking, all at the same time. 

We are living transformation as a community of faith, living gospel in action, seeking justice for a vulnerable community, welcoming neighbours into an experience of healthy and not expensive food.  We seek to be a vibrant outreach into our wider community and offer a model of transformation to our existing community of faith.

Strength! Courage!
Don’t be timid; don’t get discouraged.
God, your God, is with you every step you take. (Joshua 1:9)

Ne tremble pas, ne te laisse pas abattre, car moi, le Seigneur ton Dieu, je serai avec toi partout où tu iras. (Josué 1.9)

Rev. David

In our Kitchen this Month (January)

Happy New Year, dear kitchen friends!

May I wish us Love, Glory and Beauty for 2018?

Oh, but we have all that already!

BYE BYE 2017

Oh, Holiday Season! It was great, extraordinary, and the best part is that it’s over now! SouthWest Kitchens are officially reopening today, after two weeks of semi-closedness (this is a word) during which we served one spectacular turkey meal for 300, and another less spectacular but equally yummy community meal for 15.

On a very personal level, our kitchen statistics for 2017 have made me very happy. Last year, we served 26 Welcome Wednesday community meals to approximately 1,300 people. Even more satisfying to me is the number of volunteers who lent a helpful hand in the kitchen throughout the year : that was over 50 people, some showing up once, some staying true to us week after week. Thank you all for this amazing human experience, and for this loving, resilient community we are building all together. #VerdunLuv big time.

YO 2018!

We have many projects for the New Year.

The first and most urgent one is to replace the faucet in the kitchen : it has been dangling dangerously, and is saddly beyond repair. We have decided to make the most of the catastrophe-to-come to replace the whole counter: the new sinks will be bigger and deeper, and the new counter will shine its stainless steal upon us, oh yeah!

Another important project for us this year is to transform our bi-monthly community meals into a weekly event – hopefully in the coming weeks, when the counter business will be sorted out.

Finally, we wish to welcome and accompany more groups in the kitchen this year. If your organization or yourself are thinking of starting a collective cooking group, you may like to become residents in our kitchen: we are blessed with great equipment (Vitamix alert!) and are able to offer produce at low prices or for free, including meat. Oh, and did I mention the chef’s expertise?

JANUARY, FEBRUARY AND THEREAFTER

Our usual activities are back :

-       Every Wed. am, we cook for the community. The Dream Team Cuisine is not a exclusive group for a happy few, but a welcoming place for all of you who want to cook, improve their cooking skills and make the community profit from the process. We have a lot of fun, and I swear that all of you who have already volunteered have become experts in the art of onion chopping! Contact me if you want to join in.

-       Every Tuesday, 5-6:15 pm, Easy Peasy Recipes, cooking workshop for 10-12 year-olds. Registration is closed for the Winter session.

-       Every Wed. 5-7 pm: TeenCuisine, cooking workshop for the 13+. Talk to your teens, encourage them to come, threaten them if need be! Registration continues for the Winter session : $5 per workshop, $40 for the session.

-       Every second Wed., 12 h 30 pm : Welcome Wednesday community meal, at the same time as the Mission’s minimarket (fruit and veg at cost price). The meal is free, though you may contribute generously. The next one will be on Wed. Jan. 17th.

As for less usual activities :

-       Tuesday, Jan. 16h, 1 :30-15 :30 : Savour life, or how to feed your infant, a workshop in partnership with Verdun CLSC. Nutritionist Josée Corbeil will be explaining the theory, and I will be getting my hands dirty ! This workshop should become monthly as of March. Contribution : $15, free for all OLO participants. Call Josée to register : 514-766-0546 poste 52293.

-       Monday, Jan. 29th, 4 :30-7 pm: collective cooking with the Centre des femmes. For women only, right! Call Nathalie Vigneault, at the Centre des femmes de Verdun, to register: (514)767-0384

Have a great beginning of 2018!

Strength and energy!

Léonore Pion
Community Cook
Kitchen Coordinator, SouthWest Mission
leonore.pion@gmail.com 
Facebook : SouthWest Kitchens / Les cuisines du Sud-Ouest

En cuisine ce froid janvier !

Bonne année, amis des cuisines !

Je nous souhaite évidemment Amour, Gloire et Beauté – même si, il faut bien l’avouer, en la matière nous sommes déjà vernis !

BYE BYE 2017

Ah, le temps des fêtes ! C’était merveilleux, c’était super, c’était beau et… c’est fini, youpi ! La cuisine rouvre officiellement ce lundi après deux semaines de semi-fermeture, durant lesquelles on a quand même servi un gargantuesque repas de l’après-Noël à près de 300 convives, et un bien plus modeste (mais tout aussi délicieux) repas communautaire à une quinzaine de personnes.

Le bilan statistique de 2017 me fait personnellement très plaisir : l’année dernière, nous avons mis sur la table 26 repas communautaire Mercredi m’attend. Chacun d’eux a profité à une cinquantaine de personnes, soit près de 1300 repas servis. Pour ce qui est de l’aide que vous, chers amis, nous avez apportés, il y a là encore de quoi se tartiner d’orgueil : plus de 50 personnes se sont présentées pour nous prêter main forte en cuisine – une fois pour certains, 20 fois pour d’autres. Merci, vraiment. D’abord, parce que, d’un point de vue très personnel, vous m’offrez des expériences humaines incroyables, mais aussi et surtout parce que notre travail collectif est en train de construire une communauté mieux nourrie, plus aimante et plus résiliente. On a le cœur à Verdun, comme dirait l’autre J

YO 2018 !

On ne manque pas de projets pour 2018, que non !

En premier, on va refaire le comptoir arrière de la cuisine. Malmenée par une utilisation trop intense, la robinetterie menace de lâcher d’un jour à l’autre. On va profiter de l’imminence du bris pour changer les éviers, rendus trop petits, et remplacer le plywood qui s’effrite par de l’acier inoxydable qui rutile. Ça va briller !

Notre autre gros projet de l’année, c’est d’offrir des repas communautaires toutes les semaines – et plus seulement deux fois par mois, comme c’est le cas présentement. On espère être en mesure de le faire dans les prochaines semaines – quand le comptoir aura été remplacé !

Enfin, on souhaite accueillir et accompagner davantage de groupes en cuisine cette année. Si votre organisme ou vous-même souhaitez partir un groupe de cuisine collective, pensez à venir vous installer chez nous : notre cuisine est très bien équipée, et on est en mesure d’offrir les ingrédients à prix coûtant, ou même gratuitement !

JANVIER, FÉVRIER ET LA SUITE

Ce mois de janvier, les activités habituelles reprennent en cuisine :

-       Tous les mercredis matins, on cuisine pour la communauté. La Dream Team Cuisine n’est pas un groupe fermé de bénévoles triés sur le volet : venez vous joindre à nous ! On a beaucoup de fun tous ensemble, et je vous l’assure : tous ceux qui passent par ma cuisine font de fulgurants progrès en éminçage d’oignons !

-       Tous les mardis soirs de 17 h à 18 h 15 : Les recettes vite faites, cours de cuisine pour les 10-12 ans. Le groupe est déjà complet pour la session d’hiver.

-       Tous les mercredis soirs, de 17 h à 19 h : TeenCuisine, cours de cuisine pour les 13 ans et plus. Parlez à vos ados, encouragez-les à venir, menacez-les si les encouragements ne fonctionnent pas ! Inscriptions toujours en cours pour la session d’hiver : 5$ le cours, 40$ la session.

-       Un mercredi sur deux, 12 h 30 : repas communautaire Mercredi m’attend, en même temps que le minimarché de la Mission (fruits et légumes à prix coûtant). Le repas est gratuit, vous donnez ce que vous voulez (beaucoup, évidemment). Le prochain repas communautaire aura lieu le mercredi 17 janvier.

En ce qui concerne les activités un peu moins habituelles :

-       Mardi 16 janvier, de 13 h 30 à 15 h 30 : atelier Savourez la vie, ou comment bien nourrir votre nourrisson, en partenariat avec le CLSC de Verdun. La nutritionniste Josée Corbeil apporte la théorie, et moi, la pratique ! Cet atelier deviendra mensuel à partir du mois de mars. Contribution : 15$, gratuit pour les participantes au programme OLO (Orange, Lait, Œuf). Informations et inscriptions auprès de Josée : 514 766-0546 poste 52293.

-       Lundi 29 janvier, de 16 h 30 à 19 h : cuisine collective du Centre des femmes. Pour les femmes seulement ! Inscrivez-vous auprès de Nathalie Vigneault, au Centre des femmes de Verdun : 514 767-0384

 Bon début d’année !

Force et énergie !

Léonore Pion
Cuisinière communautaire
Coordonnatrice des activités de cuisine, Mission du Sud-Ouest
leonore.pion@gmail.com 
Facebook : SouthWest Kitchens / Les cuisines du Sud-Ouest

January Calendars: Food and Table!

A collaboration between several community organizations under the umbrella of Verdun sans faim, these monthly calendars show where to find community meals in Verdun, as well as where to join a collective kitchen, buy cheap fruits and vegetables (our own Mini-market) and get food assistance.