"This is the first time I've found an existing community where I feel like I belong. I felt welcomed here [...] and what we ate was really good!" A place where everyone is encouraged to participate In the heart of Montreal’s Ste.-Marie district, there is a very special street. Dufresne Street, between Larivière and De Rouen, has become known as the Promenade des Saveurs. Here, instead of cars, you’ll find an inviting urban garden boasting more than 60 varieties of edible plants. This "edible street" was set up in summer 2020 as a pilot project of Carrefour Solidaire Community Food Centre. With 1,620 square feet of cultivable surface, it's the largest of its kind in Canada. Last year, with the help of hard-working volunteers, the edible street produced more than 500kg of fresh fruits and vegetables for the community. One resident of the neighbourhood shared how the Promenade des Saveurs impacted them: "In addition to giving me the encouragement and the means to eat more greens, which is good for my body, [...] it also allowed me to socialize and participate in a project in solidarity with others, which did me a lot of good overall. [...] It gave me hope for a better and caring world!" A community centre built around food Promenade des Saveurs is just one of many unique programs at Carrefour Solidaire CFC. Carrefour Solidaire’s community and collective kitchens bring people together to discover new cooking techniques, ingredients, and recipes. Boîte à lunch Centre-Sud is one such popular initiative. It’s a series of after-school cooking and nutrition workshops where youth hone their skills and confidence in the kitchen, creating dishes from tamales to homemade sushi. Carrefour Solidaire CFC's affordable food market, Marché Solidaire Frontenac, encourages community members to get involved as volunteers. And their local food voucher program, Carte Proximité, offered at 30 different affordable markets in the city, aims to support the local food economy while increasing access to fresh, sustainably grown food. Finally, Carrefour Solidaire CFC’s Recoltes Solidaires program is a peer-to-peer support network where people with lived experience of food insecurity assist others in accessing community resources. Together, the group also advocates for a right to food and meets to discuss food issues of importance in the community. An innovative partnership Carrefour Solidaire CFC is the second Community Food Centre in Quebec. Their unique style of governance includes a four-person senior leadership team, each holding the position of General Co-director. Carrefour Solidaire CFC was first established in 1988, when two local community food organizations pooled their resources to better support the Centre-Sud neighborhood, a sector experiencing higher rates of poverty than the larger population of Montreal. One in every three households in Centre-Sud lives on a low income (StatCan 2016). Nearly half of all households with children in Centre-Sud are led by single parents. And 23 per cent of the population in the community are newcomers. Access to affordable food in the neighbourhood is also challenging. In becoming a Community Food Centre, Carrefour Solidaire CFC has created a welcoming new space to house new programming—community meals, a new grocery store, and other food skills programs. These offerings will complement their already robust community gardens, advocacy work, and affordable market.