Santropol Roulant

Santropol Roulant is an award-winning community organization founded and run by young people in Montreal. We bring people together across generations and cultures through an innovative approach to meals-on-wheels, and by engaging youth to take an active role in their community. Santropol Roulant uses food as a vehicle to create trust and build bridges between individuals in a city where isolation among the elderly is the highest in Canada.

Since 1995, we have delivered over 430,000 meals to seniors and individuals living with a loss of autonomy and offered close to 300 jobs and internships for young people in the community. We have built a reputation throughout Canada as a social service with a vision for social change, housing innovative perspectives on youth engagement, urban food systems and community care.

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A Visit from the Governor General

Sometimes it takes a visit from a special volunteer to help you see with fresh eyes just how extraordinary the people, events and relationships that gravitate around the Roulant truly are. This most recent reflection comes just as His Excellency, the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, came out to Santropol Roulant to visit and do a route.

A few weeks ago, we received a call from The Governor General of Canada's office to say that they had heard about our work and were wondering if they could come by for a visit... Cut to December 14th, when the Governor General was touring the building and participating in our daily 2:45 volunteer hangout before packing His bag and delivering the meal of the day to excited clients.

Hosting our Head of State was a rare opportunity to showcase Santropol Roulant and our community to a wider audience. All of us -staff, clients, volunteers, donors- contribute to shaping Santropol Roulant and as such we can -and should- take great pride in the fact that the work that we accomplish together caught the attention and interest of the Governor General of Canada.

Their presence today added a dash of panache and notorierty that helps round out a most exceptional year in the life of the Roulant. It also helped recognize and affirm the importance and value of the little things we do every day. At the Roulant, we celebrate the extraordinary of the everyday, and an extraordinary visit helped bring this work into sharper focus. A big thank you to the Governor General and His team for their visit.

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Public Consultation on Urban Agriculture:

We did it!

November 15^th -- The Work Group on Urban Agriculture (WGUA), of which Santropol Roulant is an active member, announced today that 25082 Montrealers have signed a petition calling on the city to hold a public consultation on the state of Urban Agriculture (UA) in Montreal. The deadline for collecting signatures was November 8th.

This number more than exceeds the 15 000 signatures required by
the Right of Initiative - a democratic tool adopted by the city as part of its Charter of Rights and Responsibilities. The tool is meant to help Montrealers obtain a public consultation on an issue deemed of importance to the community at large.

If 15 000 citizens sign the petition within a 3 months period, the City of Montreal has the obligation to hold a public consultation.

The WGUA is now requesting that the Montreal Office for Public Consultation be given the mandate to conduct the consultation on the city's behalf, and that this be done in a timely manner.

To read the complete press release (in french), please click here.

http://eng.agriculturemontreal.info/

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Build Grow Deliver

Santropol Roulant's Securing Our Future Campaign

The Securing our Future campaign will allow us to Build stability, Grow our programs and impact, and Deliver an innovative model for community building that celebrates the leadership and potential of people of all ages.

We will need your help to turn this dream into reality and create the next chapter of the Santropol Roulant story. Here is how you can help:

Make a donation to Securing our Future! Please print out the pledge form or give us a call at 514-284-9335.
Make a gift or increase your gift for our ongoing activities (meals-on-wheels, rooftop garden and intergenerational events) to keep our core programs strong during this important period of transition
Volunteer to help prepare for our move, with our ongoing activities, or to host a fundraising party for Securing our Future
Spread the word! Please share our exciting news with friends, family and coworkers, and help spread the community of support for Santropol Roulant.

We will be sending out regular updates to keep you in the loop as the project unfolds. We have also launched a Securing our Future website that you can access for more information, the latest news on the project, and to find out how you can get involved.