The Depot Community Food Centre is a community-based non-profit organization that provides access to healthy food, supports social connections and skills, and builds community engagement in the Notre Dame de Gras (NDG) area of Montreal and in surrounding neighbourhoods. Over 25% of the population of NDG lives at or below the poverty line – with one in three children in this situation.

One of their most successful programs, Boîte à Lunch (BaL), has been a fixture in the NDG community since it was initiated in 2003. BaL is a series of free elementary cooking and nutrition workshops. These workshops for children in grades four and five (ages 9 to 11) are designed to guide youth towards healthy food choices through participatory learning and the preparation of healthy meals. Youth are recruited from elementary schools in low-income neighbourhoods, and over 1,500 NDG at-risk youth have participated since its inception. In partnership with the Centre, the Depot is implementing and evaluating the expansion of BaL into three additional Montreal neighbourhoods over a three-year period starting in 2017. This includes developing a framework for scaling the program in a way that is responsive to and empowers the community.