The Saint-Laurent Y centre serves nutritious, hot meals to 400 children at Enfant-Soleil School every day at noon during the school year. This food program helps keep the school an environment where children’s well-being and success is a priority.

Located in the centre of Ville Saint-Laurent, Enfant-Soleil School is one of the poorest in Montréal. Close to half of the parents of pupils at the school receive Income Security benefits. To ensure that the children have access to a good meal at noon, the Saint-Laurent Y centre has been serving hot meals every day since 1991. Some 400 of the 700 pupils at the school are eligible for the service. In addition to giving the children a good meal, the program helps teach them about healthy and varied nutrition along with the basic rules of hygiene.

The Food Service Program’s principal objective is to ensure that pupils consume enough nutritional food to keep up their performance at school. Another objective is to counter the effects of poverty among underprivileged immigrant families, since most parents are refugees living in the borough of Saint-Laurent. In addition to distributing meals, program personnel promote good eating habits and encourage parents and members of the community to get involved.

To help make the program a success, a staff of permanent employees is on site, supported by the DEVENIR social rehabilitation program run by the borough of Saint-Laurent. Monthly social activities are organized jointly with the DEVENIR program and adult volunteers to help develop social and personal skills. Teams of volunteer students have also been formed to distribute the meals. Lastly, some twenty students have been asked to serve as volunteer leaders in their school.

The program is subsidized by the Ministry of Education of Québec, and is run in conjunction with the Marguerite-Bourgeoys School Board and Enfant-Soleil School, which loans the facilities to serve the meals to the children.

For more infromation, please contact Omar Hellal at the Saint-Laurent Y centre
(514) 747-9801 ext. 252.