Over lunch at the Resto Depot, Robin Willard and Lex Green reflected on a partnership that began with a simple but important question: How can we ensure that people in our community have access to fresh, nourishing food?
About ten years ago, when the NDG United Church was sold, part of the proceeds was set aside to support the surrounding community. A committee was formed at Mount Royal United Church (MRUC) to decide how those funds could best support neighbourhoods where many members of the church community resided — including NDG, Côte-des-Neiges, and Saint-Laurent — and access to food quickly emerged as a priority.
Visits to local food banks revealed a clear gap: fresh fruits and vegetables were often missing. From that observation came a new question: What if food banks had dedicated funding to purchase fresh food?
At around the same time, The Depot was asking similar questions. We were beginning to rethink our own approach, working toward a model where fresh fruits and vegetables would be available consistently, every day the food bank was open, rather than only after weekly deliveries from Moisson Montréal. From this shift, our Fresh Food Fund was born.
MRUC’s Unifrais funding became an important part of making that vision possible.
As Robin shared,
“We recognized the need and the importance of the church’s history in this neighbourhood. When we saw the good work The Depot is doing, we were very happy to be part of something so well organized that aligns with what we believe in.”
In the early days, their funding represented the majority of the produce we were able to buy. Today, The Depot invests close to $350,000 annually in fresh food for our food bank, and MRUC’s support continues to play a steady and meaningful role.
For community members, the impact is tangible. At the Marché Depot, fresh food is not an extra; it’s the standard.
Over time, this partnership has helped shape more than what’s on our shelves. What began as a shared commitment to providing nutritious food also became a way to support local food systems. Today, we work directly with 10 local farms, bringing high-quality fresh food to community members while investing in a stronger regional food network.
As the partnership evolved, MRUC continued looking for ways to strengthen food access in the community. In addition to supporting the Fresh Food Fund, they also started investing in Carte proximité — food vouchers that help households with the greatest need purchase fresh, local food at our mobile markets and others.
Over the past ten years, MRUC has contributed more than $250,000 directly toward fresh food for our community, an extraordinary commitment that has helped transform not only what we offer, but how we think about food access.
Together, this partnership shows what’s possible when community partners come together around a shared belief: that access to fresh, healthy food should be a right for all.