NDG Food Depot finds new home

The NDG Food Depot has found a new, if temporary, home.

Earlier this week, director Kim Martin issued a plea to the public after receiving notice from the building’s owners that the food bank had to be out by April 1.

The lower Notre-Dame-de-Grâce service has been at the corner of Oxford Street and de Maisonneuve Boulevard for 20 years and provides food to about 700 people a week.

But after the building was sold, the verbal agreement they said they had with the owners to stay until June 30 evaporated.

They had originally planned to move into a temporary location in the basement of St. Philip’s church at the corner of Sherbrooke Street West and Connaught Avenue, near the Montreal West train station.

The location was less than ideal, though. The basement stairs posed a problem for people with mobility issues, while the church itself was on the edge of the food bank’s service area and less accessible by foot and public transit.

And so the NDG Food Depot’s staff sighed with relief when the River’s Edge church, near Girouard Park, opened its doors to the food bank.

"Apparently we can stay there as long as we want, so we’re quite happy," said Lynda Porter, the president of the food bank’s board.

"It’s really close in the neighbourhood, and I don’t think it’s going to traumatize our clients too much."

Though the new home is more conveniently located, the NDG Food Depot is still looking for a permanent location.

She said the food bank’s last service day at its current spot will be Thursday, March 28.

The food bank will move to the River's Edge church Easter Monday, and they expect to reopen on April 15.