‘Painting a brighter future’: Artists unite to combat food insecurity in Montreal

As food insecurity continues to rise across Montreal, one of the boroughs with the highest demand — Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce – sees over 122,000 requests of emergency food services each month.

To help address this crisis, non-profit MultiCaf is turning to art to help make a difference in these challenging times.

Until April 8, artists Carmelo Blandino, Melissa Del Pinto, Kevin Ledo, and Kirsten McCrea are coming together to create a mural where each panel will be auctioned off with funds going to those in need of sustainable food assistance.

“The demand is increasing. We are doing everything we can to raise funds to bring awareness to the need,” said MultiCaf associate director of development and philanthropic communications Cora MacDonald. “It’s really a Canada-wide issue. One in five Canadians are food insecure, and we are literally trying to find creative ways to fight food insecurity.”

The organization celebrates 35 years of service this year and has served half a million people.

“There’s a massive increase in food pricing happening globally, but I do think that Canada is really feeling the pinch,” said McCrea.

“I think there’s no denying it,” Blandino added. “The entire world right now is going through tough economic times and more so than I’ve ever seen actually. So I think it’s interesting that we as artists have an amazing opportunity to be able to help.”

Each artist has varying styles, with Blandino being known internationally for his floral art, Del Pinto for her photorealistic bird paintings, Ledo for his large scale portraits, and McCrea for colourful rich patterns.

“I’ve known these artists for 15 years. I have so much respect and admiration for them, but it’s one thing to be a fan of someone’s work and another thing to actually get to create something with them, particularly for such a good cause,” said McCrea. “Getting to actually be in a studio with other people is already a treat and then to get to do it for a cause that is this great is just… I’m like on cloud nine.”

McCrea currently resides in Germany, and immediately jumped at the opportunity to once again participate in this initiative, saying she was very happy to hop on a plane and cross an ocean for this project.

Blandino, a former Dawson College illustration teacher, says this is now their third year in a row creating a mural, which is separated in 12 panels and stands at 24 feet wide and eight feet high.

These panels will then be auctioned to support MultiCaf’s mission of providing food assistance to families and individuals in Côte-des-Neiges through sustainable approaches.

“The story component is very important for us as to what we’re going to be saying here. We’ve decided this year that definitely we want to pick a theme that is very unifying across the globe and that is music,” Blandino explained.

Though only on its second day, slowly the curtain is opening with images of birds, roses, patterns and a portrait of country music icon Dolly Parton.

“This is highly unique. You’d never see artworks like this because all of us have our own practices and it looks a certain way, but here it’s a blending,” said Ledo, who was envisioning his portrait of Parton.

“Every year we learn a little bit on how we work together and what we could do next year that could be even better in terms of visuals,” said Ledo. “Our plan of attack is to make this as exciting for people to want to come see it and acquire paintings.”

The community organization says they grow 30 per cent of the fresh food it distributes and plans to reach 50 per cent in its second year of intensive production at the former Blue Bonnets Hippodrome site. Proceeds raised will go to expanding these efforts.

“Last year we were able to produce around 3,000 kilos of fresh fruits and vegetables and this year our goal is to produce 10,000,” explained MacDonald.

Blandino says this mural initiative originally sparked from a phone call in 2013 and after a successful launch in 2022, it was evident that the project would continue each year.

“We’re all relying on each other’s experience. We also know that freedom is a game here in the sense of like, be as creative as you can be and then we collaborate continuously on it,” he explained.

The public can view the making of this masterpiece until April 7 — all one has to do is book a time slot. Then they can witness the art creation process and speak with the artists at Scalia Properties Offices in Montreal.

“We couldn’t be more fortunate to have partners and friends that we can rely on who really see that in creating a brighter future themselves with their literal art,” said MacDonald. “(They) are making the world a better place for those that are in need in the community.”

The auction will take place May 21, with every proceed going towards fighting food insecurity.

“Our goal is to simply ensure that we’re able to keep helping as much as possible because the need is growing exponentially,” said MacDonald. “(And) these artists are painting a brighter future for those that are in need.”