{"id":7184,"date":"2020-12-08T14:01:08","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T19:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/?p=7184"},"modified":"2020-12-08T14:01:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T19:01:08","slug":"article-meals-for-milton-parc-enacting-student-led-community-care-by-renee-corbiere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/article-meals-for-milton-parc-enacting-student-led-community-care-by-renee-corbiere\/","title":{"rendered":"Article: Meals for Milton Parc: Enacting student-led community care By: Renee Corbiere"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This piece was submitted to the\u00a0Citizen Journal<\/strong>\u00a0project of the Peter-McGill Community Council. Please note that the opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of our organisation. This project aims to create space for the voices of residents, students and friends of the neighbourhood through articles, photos, videos and podcasts (as well as other mediums).\u00a0 Are you interested in contributing?\u00a0 Contact us at \u00a0benevolat@petermcgill.org<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Nestled between McGill University and the thriving student neighbourhood, one can find beautiful art, inviting green space, and a large, unhoused population. Montreal hosts a large population of those living without shelter – the disproportionate majority being Indigenous individuals. As an Indigenous youth, it pained me everyday leaving my house and passing my Indigenous family, cold, hungry, and struggling in the streets. I was not the only McGill student who felt this way, and so we decided to action through a mutual-aid project called Meals for Milton-Parc.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Meals for Milton-Parc was launched October 7th<\/sup>, 2020 and has been growing rapidly since. The organization was formed by students and continues under an entirely youth composed team. Our Executive Team consists of 24 students, and we have been working with over 90 student volunteers. We require volunteers to participate in a training module led by me and our Executive Director, Sophie Hart, to ensure we are providing safe and respectful support to the community. In training, we discuss Indigenous histories which may have contributed to the large Indigenous population living without shelter to help students understand why this issue persists.<\/p>

We also discuss sensitivity and safety measures to consider when working with the unhoused population and outline the rules we expect volunteers to follow.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Since our launch we have collected over $6000 in donations. We provide home cooked meals three days a week and divide shopping, preparation, and distribution roles through a monthly sign-up sheet. We try our best to make traditional Indigenous foods as often as possible as they are largely enjoyed by the community. We also like to ask for requests from the unhoused population because we do not want to impose our ideas of what they need. Once a month we distribute hygiene\/care packages and hope to increase the frequency of this kind of support. Through winter clothing drives we have been able to prepare many of these individuals for the winter, even providing tents and sleeping bags.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Recently however, the SPVM confiscated the tents, sleeping bags and other belongings that we had donated, leading us to take part in advocacy work. Students on our team reached out to the SPVM about this matter only to have the SPVM deny any involvement. This event came shortly after the city of Montreal released its 2020-2025 Strategy for Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in early November. As an Indigenous person I find this could not be more ironic – claiming reconciliatory intentions and subsequently acting to reduce Indigenous people\u2019s chances of surviving the harsh winter.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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This being said, our passionate youth team is tackling a massive multi-faceted issue and we are always looking for more help and innovative ideas. I am so inspired by the passion these youth display for their community, and I cannot wait to see what our team does next. Non-Indigenous youth are spending their free time learning about the legacies of colonization and are aiding Indigenous (and non-Indigenous) people in correcting these issues. I am so grateful for all the support we have had in our mission.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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When I picture reconciliation, this is the kind of action I imagine.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Renee Corbiere \nIndigenous Outreach Coordinator \/ Meals for Milton Parc \n<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This piece was submitted to the\u00a0Citizen Journal\u00a0project of the Peter-McGill Community Council. Please note that the opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of our organisation. This project aims to create space for the voices of residents, students and friends of the neighbourhood through articles, photos, videos and podcasts (as well as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":7185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129,173,60,59,56,32],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7198,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7184\/revisions\/7198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}