Written by Erica Bitektine (Medicine, Class of 2023)
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit Montreal, food banks were faced with a surge in demands they did not have the means to meet. With the pandemic bringing about social distancing measures and job losses for many individuals, an increased number of people turned to food banks for help. However, food banks were also severely affected by the situation, having lost valuable volunteers and employees and having had to close their cafeterias and community spaces, making it difficult for them to meet the increased need.
A group of McGill medical students noticed this growing issue and jumped right in to help food banks, giving rise to Meet the Need MTL. This initiative started off in April 2020 with the creation of a website and a social media platform to raise awareness about the issue, as well as a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the cause. After only 2 days of campaigning, Meet the Need MTL managed to raise almost 2000$. Following this successful debut, the team reached out to food banks in Montreal in order to assess their most immediate needs, which were funds, perishable food donations and a need for more volunteers and financial accounting help. In order to help food banks with these needs, Diana Benea, Natasha Barone and Tharaniya Vallipuram set out to further develop the initiative by taking care of recruiting volunteers, communicating with food banks and creating more fundraising projects and events.
Through their GoFundMe page, Meet the Need MTL collected almost 6000$, which they then distributed to various food banks across Montreal in the form of monetary donations and non-perishable food donations. They also collaborated with McGill engineering students in order to create a team focused on improving the efficiency and reliability of the organization of food banks. For instance, the Engineering team programmed a database to keep track of food bank members and financial transactions, alleviating the overwhelmed organizations’ administrative burden. In order to further promote awareness about the cause, along with promoting physical activity, Meet the Need MTL, in collaboration with medical students from the Université de Montréal, organized the “Get Fit for Food Security” challenge. This project, headed by another member of the team, Lee Benaroch, who was responsible for finding sponsors for the challenge, engaged members across the Montreal community to participate in fitness classes offered 4 times a week and helped raise 1353$ for the cause.
So far, Meet the Need MTL helped food banks feed more people, while also increasing their management efficiency. The food banks have expressed their gratefulness and their thanks to Meet the Need MTL for their help during these difficult times. An example of this is Lou, from the Mile-End Community Mission who wrote to them saying: “Hello friends, I’m sending you a couple of photos along with out heartfelt thanks for helping to raise funds for the Mission. Our numbers are really increasing since the Covid-19 outbreak and your help means the world to us! Take care”. The initiative also helped fund sustainable projects, such as community garden projects and the implementation of the use of reusable bags for food basket deliveries. More importantly, this initiative brought attention to the issue of food insecurity in Montreal and brought the community together to help this important cause.
However, Meet the Need MTL’s work does not end here: for the start of the school year, they plan to help fund school supplies for the children served by partner food banks and of course to further raise awareness and funds to help food banks meet their needs.
To conclude, we have a little message from Meet the Need MTL: “We are very grateful for all our wonderful, dedicated community members who showed enthusiasm about our initiative and this cause and helped us raise more funds than we would have ever imagined. However, we would like all readers to keep in mind that regardless of the pandemic, food insecurity is a devastating issue in Montreal, much more prevalent than you might think, and that food banks are essential in helping individuals who would otherwise not be able to make ends meet. These community organizations truly deserve more credit, and I encourage us all to continue to help in any way we can.”
Memorable moment from the initiative:
“One memorable moment was when we delivered 500$ worth of non-perishable food items to ICNA Relief Canada, a fairly small, newly established food bank in Montreal. We had several boxes of cans of all sorts and jars that we carried from the trunk of our car to the food bank’s entrance. I will always remember the look on the food bank employee’s face once he realized exactly how large the quantity of food we had brought was. We understood that the number of boxes we were carrying greatly surpassed his expectations! This was a very gratifying feeling, seeing that our efforts led to a meaningful impact in our community and that we could truly provide relief to many families in these difficult times. Following that donation, we made a second one of an even larger size to ICNA Relief Canada.”
~ Diana Benea from the organizing team of Meet the Need MTL