Volunteers brave cold at Montreal food drives

Montreal’s food drives begin with full force Hundreds of Montrealers began their annual preparations for the holiday season, supporting several food drives around the city.

Residents of NDG and Montreal West were given the chance to get into the holiday spirit on Saturday as the Depot Community Food Centre held its annual Fund and Food Drive.

Volunteers distributed 18,000 flyers and went around gathering donations to help the needy during the holiday season. The food will go towards supplying healthy food for the depot’s community programs, including the distribution of 16,000 emergency food baskets.

“It’s a big fundraiser,” said Depot Community Food Centre Executive Director Daniel Rotman. “We’ve moved a lot towards asking for monetary donations as opposed to food because we’re much more efficient with money. For every dollar we receive in donations, we can buy three dollars’ worth of food.”

Rotman said around 450 volunteers braved the cold to help out.

“Many people are going door-to-door in -15 weather,” he said. “It’s a wonderful community event, an event for the community by the community.”

Also on Saturday, Moisson Montreal held its Christmas Harvest, which saw 200 volunteers striving to make 20,000 food baskets.