Montreal community groups struggle to provide essential groceries amid food inflation

Every Saturday, Leonora Indira King delivers low-cost Indian meals cooked by women with precarious finances to Parc-Extension residents. 

The community organizer and founder of the Parc-Ex Curry Collective created the mutual aid and catering service in April to help women who have recently emigrated to Canada gain financial autonomy by showcasing their cooking skills. 

"You see all kinds of scenarios and people in need," she said. 

As Canadians brace themselves for spiking food prices and the threat of a new COVID-19 variant, community groups worry they may not be able to foot the bill for clients' nutritional needs in the coming months. 

Pascal Thériault, an agricultural economist and director of the farm management and technology program at McGill University, says Canadians enjoyed relatively low food costs until the pandemic disrupted the country's supply chain.

"Everyone in Canada is paying the price for lower efficiency," he said. 

Cutting costs

Although there's little Quebecers can do on an individual level to counter inflation, Thériault suggests buying local food products whenever possible to help businesses reinvest in the community. Skipping processed and pre-packaged foods is another way to cut costs. 

"Because food was so cheap, we lost the habit of taking the time to cook food," he said.

"One way to avoid the food inflation as a consumer is to move away from those habits and take that [time] trade-off because it can also be fun to know all the ingredients you're using." 

But not everyone has the luxury of choice. 

"COVID showed us that and that extra costs will definitely bring more people to our food banks," Sharon Nelson, first vice-president of the Jamaica Association, told CBC's Daybreak. 

"You want to help people survive ... and most of their income is going into rent."

She and Michael Labelle, chair of the West Island Assistance Fund board, are urging donors to transfer funds directly to community groups and specify the purpose of the donation, rather than purchase canned goods and other staples to donate. 

"If you're noticing what manufacturers are doing, they're reducing the size of packaging," Labelle said. "They're trying to keep prices stable but they're giving you less." 

"We have access to bulk pricing," Labelle said."The other thing, too, is if you make a donation to us, you get a tax credit." 

Paying it forward

Since May, King has expanded the service to allow customers to order meals for Parc-Extension families in need. 

When she realized many of the women were avid cooks, they took turns hosting online cooking shows for each other before finally launching the catering business, which gives the women the possibility to cook from home and earn an income while staying with their families. 

"Financial autonomy was particularly important for these women because of the things they're dealing with in their personal lives, and they're facing so many barriers to employment."

While orders have been consistent, she expects them to jump in the new year as vulnerable residents feel the brunt of food inflation.

"[The collective] is not just Uber Eats: We're also connecting with you and visiting you on more than one occasion," she said. 

"All the chefs are vegetarian, so that's one less expense, but we just try to do as much as we can."