The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, visited with La Tablée des Chefs where she highlighted a contribution of $800,000 the Government of Canada has made to the organization through the Local Food Infrastructure Fund emergency funding.
Minister Bibeau also took this opportunity to celebrate with the organization as they reached the milestone of two million meals produced for Food Banks of Quebec under their Les Cuisines Solidaires project.
As the impacts of COVID-19 began to be felt across the province, food banks were not spared. Many of them had to contend with fewer volunteers and workers. La Tablée des Chefs recognized these challenges and responded by launching Les Cuisines Solidaires in early April 2020.
The project mobilized restaurant owners and chefs who could prepare ready-to-deliver meals for food banks. These highly capable chefs and their teams were able to prepare large quantities of food. Restaurants were also able to repurpose ingredients which would otherwise be wasted. To date, more than two million meals have been prepared and shipped through La Tablée des Chefs.
The Government of Canada's contribution will also enable La Tablée des Chefs to organize the production and distribution of an additional 400,000 meals in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Calgary, thanks to Solidarity Kitchens, the Canada-wide expansion of Cuisines Solidaires.
In response to COVID-19, the Government of Canada has undertaken several initiatives to support food security across the country. The Government launched a $100 million emergency fund to help improve access to food for people experiencing food insecurity in Canada due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, this emergency funding has supported 1,856 individual projects in communities across Canada.
In addition, the Government launched the $50 million Surplus Food Rescue Program, which aims to move surplus food commodities through the food system as efficiently as possible to help vulnerable Canadians. $25 million has also been allocated to Nutrition North to ensure food security for Canada’s most vulnerable in northern areas.
Source : Government of Canada