Starting Friday, June 30, 2023, the Roulant will be hosting a weekly Kiosque alimentaire / Friday Hang on the public space of the Terrasses Roy.
With the current context of disproportionately high food prices and eco-gentrification, which is putting citizens in the Plateau at increasing risk of financial precarity, food insecurity and homelessness, the Roulant’s agriculture and kitchen teams have joined forces in creating two important new community partnerships: Plein Milieu, an organisation that builds relationships of trust with people experiencing homelessness through by centering harm reduction, information, and prevention; and Carte proximité, a food stamps project by Carrefour solidaire CCA.
…and so, the Kiosque alimentaire / Friday Hang was born!
What’s involved? It’s a weekly event under which three key elements are nestled: a soup kitchen, vegetable & egg sales, and volunteer shifts, with the overarching goal of creating a better social mix by being more inclusive to people experiencing such vulnerable situations in our backyard. The Kiosque alimentaire / Friday Hang is above all an invitation to a friendly, inclusive, and intergenerational space, one that will not be exempt from the challenges of cohabitation, but one that welcomes every person in the neighbourhood.
The details:
- Start date: Friday, June 30, 2023*
- *The Carte proximité will be accepted starting July 7
- *The Friday, July 14 kiosk will be replaced by Rue Fermier on Thursday, July 13
- End date: Friday, October 20, 2023
- Hours: 4 to 6 PM
- Location: the public space of the Terrasses Roy, 111 Roy Street East
The three components of the Kiosque:
| Soup kitchen (4:00 – 6:00 PM) | Soup prepared by staff and volunteers Served free of charge / pay-what-you-can Self-identification guide on site to help you situate yourself according to your needs and capacity |
| Vegetable & egg sales (4:00 – 6:00 PM) | Vegetables from the Roulant’s agricultural sites & eggs from the Ferme coopérative aux champs qui chantent Payment methods: cash, debit/credit card, and the Carte proximité, a program by the Carrefour solidaire CCA that has newly expanded to the Plateau* Invitation to contribute to paying it forward with vegetables & eggs – similar to the more commonly known model of paying it forward with cup of coffee |
| Volunteering (4:30 – 6:30 PM in the gardens and 3:30 to 6:30 PM for soup service) | Volunteers who have scheduled a shift as well as drop-ins are welcome Children are welcome. Tasks: gardening, soup kitchen support (food service, clean up) Call us at (514) 284-9335 to sign up and/or to register as a new volunteer |
*Registration for the Carte proximité is closed for 2023, but you could benefit from the card next year. Consult the map to find organisations near you that distribute and accept the card.
Project collaborators: thank you to the CDC du Plateau for expanding the Carte proximité to the Plateau, to Jonathan Lebire of Collectif Comm-Un for consulting on the project, and to the borough of Plateau-Mont-Royal for the permanent installation of Terrasses Roy.
See you soon,
– Magali
Funded by the Government of Canada’s Community Services Recovery Fund