The hunger harvest

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by Philip Preville

Autumn has arrived--time to head up to Jean-Talon market and buy apples and red peppers by the basketful. At harvest time, everything's in season and everything's cheap.

But, inexpensive as the produce may be, it's still too much for the 165,000 Montrealers who depend on local food banks for their meals. "The economy may be strong, but hunger is still going strong too," says Marie-France Desy of Harvest Montreal, the mega food bank that distributes food to over 275 local food banks and soup kitchens. "It's nice to know that the high-tech sector is growing, but that's not much help to people living on welfare."

Thankfully, Harvest Montreal is recognized as the best food bank in North America for handling fresh fruits and vegetables. Their fleet of four refrigerated trucks makes regular rounds to local farmers and grocery-chain warehouses to pick up anything that hasn't spoiled. Last year, Harvest Montreal distributed an average of 23 tons of fresh produce every day.

But that's just an average. As winter drags on, fresh-food supplies dry up--leaving the poor to live off canned tomatoes and peaches. "We're working on that," Desy says. "We have refrigerators, but we'd like to get a big plastic-wrapping machine so we could preserve the perishables longer. Right now, we just don't have the money."

Harvest Montreal can be reached at 344-4494.

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