What We Do

Solidarity Markets

Two Mondays per month, we host markets which provide access to beautiful, local, affordable food through a social-tiered pricing system. Our solidarity market looks and feels similar to a small farmer’s market, just flexible pricing! When you shop at our markets, fresh produce is available to all shoppers, and there’s a separate pantry section (milk, eggs, bread, cans, other shelf-stable goods) that is just for members.

The market is held at Centre St Jax, 1439 St-Catherine O, from 2pm to 5pm on the dates listed below. Check back in quarterly to find out the new round of dates!

What is a social-tiered pricing system? It’s a way of charging for items where the cost varies depending on the need of the person buying it - this aims to make food more accessible for all! 

For us, it means we have three prices:

  1. Member price: for those who are in need of food assistance, the price for produce is around 20% of the estimated retail price, and for eggs and milk it’s 50% of their retail prices. Membership also grants access to the pantry section which has bread and other shelf-stable goods for free.

  2. Non-member price: for those on the waitlist or who can afford to pay a bit more than the member price but can still benefit from reduced prices. Being a non-member means produce and transformed food costs about 50% of its retail price. Paying the non-member price is a great way to support the market!

  3. Paying it forward: for those who want to support the financial independence of the market a bit extra, you can always round up your shopping bill to pay it forward. If you want a tax receipt, leave your bill as-is and donate online!

We accept both cash and card at the market, remember to bring a shopping bag along! Carte Proximité, a program of Carrefour Solidaire CFC can also be used as a form of payment.

Fall 2024 Market Dates

September 9th and 23rd

October 7th and 21st

November 4th and 18th

December 2nd and 16th

Seniors Markets

The Wednesday after each Solidarity Market, we take the market on the road! We run mobile markets in the community rooms of two low-income seniors homes in the neighborhood. These markets are primarily a way of reducing both physical and economic barriers between our neighbourhood’s seniors and food insecurity, but they also are a great way to reduce our leftovers and food waste from the bigger markets.

Our Seniors markets take place at HLM Durocher (425 Sherbrooke W) and HLM Dufort (2101 René-Levesque W) at both locations on the Wednesdays after the Solidarity Market. The Durocher market is from 11am-12pm and the Dufort market is from 2pm-3pm. These markets are open to all seniors regardless of if they live in the building where it takes place.

These markets are made possible by our partnerships with The Yellow Door and Groupe Harmonie!

Community Kitchens

We run 2-hour long community kitchen sessions every Tuesday, Wednesday and off-market Monday - they are from 10am-12pm and 1pm-3pm!

But what is a community kitchen? It is a place where community members can come together to cook and, often, eat! We run community kitchens for a variety of reasons:

  • To reduce our leftovers by processing food that would otherwise go to landfill, and turning it into something beautiful!

  • To provide opportunities for food to be the gathering place of our neighbourhood and community;

  • To make delicious transformed food items, like soups and baked goods, that can be sold at our markets;

  • To increase people’s cooking IQ and provide employability training for members of both Innovation Assistance and our Connections program.

Sign up here to come join us! Bring a tupperware along so that you can take home a portion of whatever we make. 

Urban Agriculture

Since 2011, From the Root to the City has been growing food on the unceded territory of Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), engaging the community in immersive gardening in the heart of downtown. We aim to increase food sovereignty in our neighborhood, and increase awareness on both environmental and food security issues through hands-on educational opportunities, often in collaboration with other like-minded organizations in the area. While the mission is to grow food, it has become so much more than that throughout the past years, and we strive to maintain our commitments to soil health, reciprocity, and empowering young people who are passionate about people and about food justice. We have big dreams for this program, which is continually evolving, just like the community we connect with.

Our urban agriculture programming operates in close proximity with everything that goes on at Innovation Assistance. The young people that participate in the spring and summer internships, spend shifts at the solidarity markets - this helps grow their applicable work skills in unique ways to their gardening work. The harvest from our urban gardens also goes directly to the solidarity market, or to be transformed in our community kitchens! We really love this because it means that some of the produce at our market is traveling only 200m!!

If you are interested in participating in the internship, email delaracine@direction.ca for more information! If you want to volunteer in our gardens, sign up here!

Advocacy and Mobilization

More than just being a food distribution centre, we aim to educate and engage members on community events, the food system as a whole, as well as inviting them to join us in fixing system injustices that affect us all.

We believe that everyone needs to eat, and that they deserve to eat the food that they both want and need. We dream of a Peter-McGill in which everyone has dignified food access, in which there is food autonomy, food sovereignty, and food justice. We dream of Peter-McGill having an affordable, robust, and local food system; achieving that goal requires the support of those with the power to instill larger change. If you are interested in echoing your support of dignified food security in our neighbourhood and across Canada, you can download this letter template to send to your MP or MNA!

Outside of strictly food security, we love to use our markets as a hub for community and for organizations in the neighbourhood. In the past this has meant: dotmocracies to help decide what items we should have in the kitchen equipment library; professionals available to discuss tenant rights and give advice; lettering campaigns to send to our elected officials. 

If ever you are interested in having a table at one of our markets to share an event or a service in your organization - reach out to innov-coord@direction.ca!