Hospital project provides hot meals to vulnerable patients

Montreal’s Notre-Dame Hospital is on more than just a mission to treat patients, but to help them too with a new project: Hospital Solidaire.

Hospital Solidaire will allow vulnerable people using their health services to have access to free hot meals in their cafeteria.

“Sometimes we had patients that were coming with no money and they wanted to eat. You know, if they are waiting in the emergency and they are hungry, they want to eat and they cannot wait and they come here. And sometimes we were calling security because they couldn’t pay. But now it’s just we know that they just need to eat. So we want to give them the food,” said Annie Marquez, food services coordinator of CIUSSS Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal.

Around 50 health-care professionals within the hospital network are able to help patients dealing with food insecurity – whether it’s new arrivals, pregnant women, or people facing homelessness or addiction.

“If they need it, they will give him a card and they can come here in the cafeteria to eat whatever they want,” said Marquez.

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Patients are given prepaid cards worth $25 to $400 to spend at the cafeteria.

“People are really dignified when they come here because they can really choose what they want. When they go to a food bank, they don’t choose the food they eat,” said Marquez.

“Initiatives like these are great because they create a sense of connection with people,” added Véronique Beaulieu-Fowler, the director of Philanthropic Development at Food Banks of Quebec. “And food is often the first resource that people will seek out in the community sector.”