On Thanksgiving, Montreal community groups grateful to public despite challenges

With many families preparing to gather for Thanksgiving, thoughts turn to those who are less fortunate and to the challenges faced by organizations trying to help.

Places like the Welcome Hall Mission, where on Saturday staff at the Macaulay pavilion kitchen were busy preparing to receive more than 200 people for Thanksgiving dinner. The event will take place on Monday when Montreal Alouettes players will help serve meals following their CFL match against Ottawa.

It’s the kind of thing workers say some of the less fortunate are looking forward to because these days, so many people are in need.

“The needs are growing and that’s an unfortunate reality,” said Welcome Hall’s CEO and Executive Director Sam Watts. “Not only that, they’re more complex than we’ve ever seen before.”

He pointed to a number of problems: the housing crisis, the sharp increase in the unhoused population, and the rise in drug overdoses.

“We’re also seeing a lot of people that are housed, but just hanging on,” Watts noted.

He said this Thanksgiving, the number of families showing up at their free supermarket has doubled.

1:57 Montreal food banks struggling to keep up with growing demand

But Welcome Hall and a number of other community organizations’ staff say they are feeling the pinch too.

“It’s a process that’s happening right now and unfortunately the food banks are seeing that there’s less available for them,” explained Ernie Rosa, Properties Director at Sun Youth.

He says whether it’s the cost of food items or people donating less because they simply have less to give it’s more challenging to get donations.

“Everybody’s hurting,” he observed.  “The noose is getting tighter and tighter.”

Regardless of the difficulties though, Rosa and other community workers said they will continue to do whatever they can.

“Well, that’s part of our job. Our job is to help people but it’s also to give them hope,” he said. “So, when we’re out there, boots on the ground, knocking on company’s doors, trying to get more food – that’s what we signed up for.”

For all the help that they are getting from the public, he and others say they are truly thankful.