NDG Food Depot helps many people in many ways

CBC Montreal raised over $44,000 for the NDG Food Depot in our annual charity drive.

Daybreak's Shari Okeke sat down with several Montrealers who say the Depot has made a real difference in their lives.

• CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO THE SING-IN CHARITY DRIVE
• More Quebecers turned to food banks in 2015 compared to last year

'I feel blessed'

Eleonora Zawislak says she first came to the NDG Food Depot when she lost her job before becoming eligible for a pension. She ran out of her savings and needed help accessing food. Now she volunteers at the Depot and is a regular participant in community kitchen workshops, where she learns new recipes that she loves to make for her 90-year-old mother. 

"There's many people, in different levels [of need,] that need a helping hand and I feel blessed coming here," Zawislak said.

'Everyone was accepting me'

Analté Rodriguez is a single mother of three daughters who came to Canada from Mexico about a year and a half ago. Fruits and vegetables were so expensive she nearly had to cut them out of her diet completely. Then she and her kids started getting sick. So despite feeling embarrassed, she turned to the NDG Food Depot for help and was pleasantly surprised by the experience.

"Once I was there, everybody was accepting me and so respectful and so nice," said Rodriguez, who now works at the NDG Food Depot at the reception desk as well as at the Depot's Good Food Market on Fridays.

She also takes part in cooking workshops and now loves making recipes she never imagined she could cook.

"I dare to buy different ingredients that normally I wouldn't consider," she said.

Daybreak Montreal12:40NDG Food Depot helps those in need feed their families

Shari Okeke brings us the stories of Montrealers who use the NDG Food Depot, a food bank that has also become a community institution.