The royal treatment that the government grants to the Los Angeles Kings for holding two preparatory matches in Quebec represents a “slap in the face” for the Bouchée generous, a food bank located in the shadow of the Videotron Center and which is struggling to support itself to a demand that has tripled since the pandemic.
“At the moment when we hear that there is no more money, it is a very cruel irony that millions of dollars are being spent right in front of the largest food bank in the City,” laments Marie-Pier Grave, deputy director of Bouchée generous.
In his eyes, the capital is “in crisis”: poverty is increasing but the means to relieve it are not keeping pace. “Before the pandemic, we welcomed 350 families per week. Today, more than 1,000 of them benefit from our services. » In front of the organization, long queues now form each time baskets are distributed. “Some people line up from 6 a.m.” to get their hands on food as soon as it opens, three hours later, explains Marie-Pier Gravel. From the sidewalk where they wait, these people in need can see the sign of the Videotron Center, the amphitheater where the Kings, owned by two American billionaires, are to hold two training sessions and two exhibition games in the fall of 2024.
Faced with such an influx, the premises of Bouchée generous are becoming too small, the staff is too few, and the food is increasingly scarce in a context where inflation is hurting food banks. “We have to make purchases,” explains the deputy director, “but we can buy less food than six months ago with the same amount. »
The 2023 HungerCount calculates that community organizations responded to 2.6 million food aid requests each month in Quebec. More than 872,000 people have benefited from it, “a conservative estimate” even if it represents 10% of the Quebec population. More than a third of these beneficiaries are children, specifies the Hunger Report.
It is in this context that the Minister of Finance, Éric Girard, extended five to seven million dollars to the Californian club of the National Hockey League. Food banks were asking for $18 million to feed everyone with hungry stomachs. The latest economic update gives them 10.
“Last year, food banks gave 31.2 million baskets and they asked for 18 million,” calculates Marie-Pier Gravel. They didn’t charge much: they charged about 50 cents per basket. And we didn’t even get it. »
The missing eight million dollars would have been used to “survive the current crisis”, assures Marie-Pier Gravel. “This money would be used to buy food and nothing else. It’s not even an amount that we want to invest in our infrastructure or in increasing our services: it’s just to be able to maintain them. »
In the National Assembly, the granting of public funds to bring two games without stakes to Quebec arouses indignation. “The food banks are still asking for eight million dollars. Thousands of Quebecers are hungry. This is more important than two hockey games,” wrote Liberal MP Greg Kelley to the Minister of Finance.
Further details will follow.