Volunteering at Welcome Hall Mission

January 5, 2023

“Established in 1892, Welcome Hall Mission is the largest doorway to help for Montrealers in need.” On January 5th, I had the great opportunity to volunteer there for a few hours. My wish to help this non-profit organization first originated in October of 2022, when the Community Engagement Coordinator of the organization, Daniel Boyer, did a presentation in my English class. 2 months later, inspired by his presentation, my team and I chose to do our final Research Paper on the issue of homelessness in Canada, as part of our

« Research Project in the Social Sciences » course. For that project, I personally got in touch with M. Boyer, with whom I conducted a qualitative interview; hence, after discussing the numerous challenges that homeless people or people on the brink of homelessness must face every day, I had no other choice but to get involved.

Therefore, a few weeks later, I was distributing food at one of their facilities, the Welcome Hall Market. This place “offers its clients a grocery shopping experience that promotes dignity and autonomy”. Personally, my job was to receive customers and distribute food to them, while giving them a smile and trying to make their day a little better. Every week, Welcome Hall Mission offers food assistance to 3000 low-income Montrealers; thus, it was very rewarding to play a part in this admirable mission. I especially want to highlight the exceptional organization on-site, as it is a tremendous challenge to help so many people in an efficient way as well as the immense kindness of the other volunteers, who made my experience even better.

This experience allowed me to face the shocking reality that many do not have enough to eat every day. I also realized that people in need of food assistance are far from the "cliché" of the homeless person conveyed by our society. In fact, during these few hours, we welcomed women, men, children, people from their twenties to their sixties, immigrants, and Ukrainian refugees, so it is clear that needs come from all types of individuals. Finally, I find that being in such an environment has allowed me to put into perspective my own little everyday problems, which are nothing compared to theirs, and to reiterate my gratitude for the life I live. In the end, giving a few hours of our time to help these people is really the least we can do and it is clear that I will be returning to volunteer at Welcome Hall Mission!

https://welcomehallmission.com/about-us/

Contact :

Guylaine Faubert

Administrative agent, Volunteer Center

(514) 523-5288 #396