MAZON Canada supports food projects across the country, from Haida Gwaii to Iqaluit to Thunder Bay. We have highlighted a few of our grantees - organizations that do incredible front-line work and face great challenges in this difficult period. Your support of MAZON Canada helps your community and your neighbours across the country fight hunger on the ground.
QUEBEC:
ACTION NOUVELLE VIE - 2020 was supposed to be Mélanie’s year. Two years ago, she went back to school to get a teaching diploma to be eligible for better work. While in school, she depended on Action Nouvelle Vie for a weekly food hamper for herself and the daughter she was raising alone in Longueuil. In 2019, she finally graduated and found a job, and looked forward to her first full year of food security and financial independence in 2020. But despite all the hard work she’d done to find a better life for herself and her daughter, daycares closed when the virus came in March. Mélanie was forced to turn back to Action Nouvelle Vie for help. She wasn’t alone Action Nouvelle Vie went from supporting 350 families with meal hampers to requests for over 1000. Overwhelmed with demand, they had to find new sources of support for these South Shore families. They’re one of more than a dozen new partners who had never heard of MAZON until this crisis. But when Canadians go hungry, the Jewish community cares - so we are proud to help people like Mélanie with a COVID-19 Emergency Grant to Action Nouvelle Vie’s hamper program.
MADA COMMUNITY CENTER - MADA Community Center has been a MAZON Canada partner for many years. They have been working in Montreal since 1993 to break the cycle of poverty and provide a family-like atmosphere for their clients. A central piece of their mission is to help those in need with basic necessities and services while preserving dignity.
One of MADA’s central programs is called Chez Makolet, and it's much more than just a food bank. It is a 20,000 square foot warehouse where clients can access all of life’s day-to-day essentials, such as food, diapers, toilet paper and many other household items, all free of cost. They also run a cafeteria where volunteers serve delicious, healthy meals in a welcoming environment to anyone in need - both Jewish and non-Jewish - and a program called Shabbat to Share, where volunteers bring a Shabbat meal to isolated seniors.
Not only does MADA provide food to those in need, but also clothing and furniture. The work that MADA does truly changes lives and supports the needs of the most vulnerable in the community. This year, MAZON supported their Seder in a Box program, which brought Passover essentials to those in need early in the COVID-19 crisis.
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