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1980’s
1985
The Garde-Manger Pour Tous is created when 12 community groups from Southwest
Montréal join forces to transform their individual food collection, storage and
distribution systems into a single operation. This coming together of resources
results in an increase in the amount of foodstuffs distributed and the
streamlining of the system of distribution, thus maximizing return on time,
money and effort invested in food distribution.
1987
The food distribution service supplies 35,000 kg of foodstuffs a year to 19
different community groups. An information bank of food aid needs is compiled
and made available to neighbourhood groups.
1988
The Garde-Manger team, now including 7 employees and approximately 20
volunteers, organizes the Table de concertation sur la faim dans le Sud-ouest.
A total of 19 organizations are represented on the committee, whose goal is to
find solutions to the local hunger problem.
1989
The amount of foodstuffs distributed by the Garde-Manger reaches 185,000 kg a
year and 22 community groups are now involved.
1990’s
1990
The principal of Petite Bourgogne School asks the Garde-Manger Pour Tous to
provide school lunches for 150 pupils.
1991
In an effort to boost children’s school grades by improving their nutritional
intake, the Ministère de l’Éducation launches a food security measure known as
the Mesure alimentaire in a number of underprivileged neighbourhoods The
Commission Scolaire de Montréal asks the the Garde-Manger to organize a
hot-lunch program in four Little Burgundy schools. With the help of a
provincial employment access program, a team is formed to prepare meals, serve
them and supervise participating pupils.
1999
The number of children benefiting from the Garde-Manger’s programs continues to
rise, quintupling between 1991 and 1998. Now 81,213 meals are prepared by five
employees over the course of the school year. In addition, food distribution
programs hand out 520,000 kg of foodstuffs.
2000’s
2000
In order to meet a growing need for school lunches and to allow for the
development of new projects, the Garde-Manger Pour Tous reorganizes and expands
its cooking facilities, moving its headquarters to 755 des Seigneurs.
2002
The Garde-Manger Pour Tous joins forces with Les Cuisines des Parents, an organization
based in Point St. Charles that also offers a school-lunch program. The result
is a tripling of the number of meals produced, bringing it to 2,350 a day in 12
schools. The staff now includes 47
full-time employees engaged in food preparation and 43 part-time employees
involved in supervising children.
2005
Healthy eating workshops are set up for mothers with young children with a view
to helping them become better informed about health and nutrition, shop more wisely,
learn new cooking skills, be more open-minded and become more involved in their
community.
2006
Today, the Garde-Manger Pour Tous includes 115 employees who distribute
389,418 meals to children every day ; 500 000 kg of food to 24 community groups and support 50 people for a social and professionnal integration.
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