With prices rising for at least two years, eating well is becoming more and more difficult in Quebec, according to data analyzed by The duty. This difficulty is exacerbated within immigrant communities newly arrived in the province, who must juggle rising costs and preserving their culinary customs.
“My life in Bangladesh and my life here are completely different,” says Meherunnessa Chowdhury, met by The duty in the premises of the Ressource Action-Alimentation organization, in the Parc-Extension district. Housed at the William-Hingston center, the organization offers a food support service to its users.
In his country of origin, Mme Chowdhury could afford a chef at home. But after the death of her husband from COVID-19, in the middle of a pandemic, her situation quickly deteriorated. After long procedures, she arrived in Quebec with her daughter last February. The adaptation, since then, has been littered with financial obstacles.
“The hardest thing is to eat well,” she explains. Prices are constantly rising, and this is felt even more among low-income people. According to an analysis of Duty data from the Alima Perinatal Social Nutrition Center, the minimum price of a healthy grocery store increased by 25% between January 2022 and October 2023 alone. During this same period, the cost of certain foods increased by more than 50%.
Arriving in Canada with limited income, Meherunnessa Chowdhury had to start cooking for herself and her daughter. “I remember our leader [au Bangladesh], the dishes he prepared, how he did it,” she remembers. It was these memories that guided her once she arrived in Montreal. The support provided by Ressource Action-Alimentation also helps her enormously, she says, in having access to fresh food.
According to the report Hunger Report 2023 of Quebec Food Banks, approximately a quarter (24.7%) of the clientele is made up of new immigrants or refugees.
At the Alima Center, which also works with people from immigrant backgrounds, nutritionist Suzanne Lepage notes that this clientele is also the one who adapts best to changes in their diet. “The advantage [que ces personnes] have is that the majority of them know how to cook. So we’re going to start with foods that they don’t know, but by giving them a few tips, they’ll know what to do with them. »
Keeping your traditions alive despite everything
Knowing how to adapt does not necessarily mean making cultural sacrifices, nuance Mme The page. The immigrant mothers with whom she works also know how to integrate these new foods into their cultural food background.
At home, Meherunnessa Chowdhury prepares vegetable soups, Thai-inspired recipes, but also typically Bangladeshi dishes. His roommates, who are of Indian origin, also taught him how to prepare roti, a traditional bread, and biryani, a popular dish from their native South Asia. Even if she has to make budgetary choices, she wants to preserve her customs.
Within immigrant communities, there are food choices that these people are not ready to sacrifice, even in a precarious situation, confirms Mylène Thériault, project manager at the Saint-Léonard Food Security Concertation. The organization, which works in concert with a multitude of community partners in the neighborhood, sets up various support activities to help families in need.
“When we made a Christmas sharing store [en 2022], we thought that couscous was going to be popular,” she relates. The Saint-Léonard district is indeed home to a large North African community, in which couscous is a central element of the culinary culture.
“But in the end, people didn’t take it. ” For what ? Because the size of the grain differed from that favored in traditional North African couscous recipes, she explains. “These are things that, as white people, we don’t realize. […] Even people in need didn’t take our couscous, because they still have their preferences. »
This is also the case for M.me Chowdhury. She is not fond of prepared food, among other things. “I use about 70% of what I’m given [à la banque alimentaire] “, she said to Duty. “But I don’t throw anything away. The rest I give to my roommates. Some of them are students. These things are more useful to them. »
She prefers fresh produce, to make her own dishes at home. She also makes sure to make them in large quantities, in order to share them with her roommates. “They love the food I make,” she adds with a big smile.