Welfare Avenue

About us

A youth-powered non-profit fighting food insecurity and poverty through direct community action, delivering meals and essential support directly to people where they are.

Our mission

Solidarity, not charity

We lead with the person, not their circumstance. Everyone who comes to a serving is part of our community, and is welcomed that way.

Food is our starting point. From a first meal, we build trust and connect people with the support that can change what comes next: essentials, community services, housing and health resources, through the partners who provide them.

And we are youth-powered. Students and young professionals cook, drive, serve and lead, and grow into the next generation of community leaders along the way.

Volunteers in green vests, seen from behind, serve under the Welfare Avenue tent in winter.

Four pillars

14,000+meals served since April 2020
250+servings since April 2020, in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa
4,500+holiday gifts hand-delivered in 2024 and 2025
600+volunteers since 2020

Our best estimates from our records, April 2020 to September 2026, rounded down.

Food security mobilization
Home-cooked meals, served every second Sunday in downtown Montreal by youth volunteers who cook, drive and serve. In Toronto, our team brings free food events to shelters and drop-in centres.
Dignified resource distribution
Clothing, hygiene baskets and seasonal essentials, offered with care and choice. Our Holiday Gift Basket Drive hand-delivered more than 3,000 gifts in 2025.
Dismantling social isolation
A meal is also a conversation. Many of our volunteers come back again and again, so the people we serve see familiar faces and a community that knows them.
Integrating the care ecosystem
We build trust through food, then connect people with the services they need, alongside shelters and community organizations across the city.

Our story

Since 2020

April 2020
Welfare Avenue begins in Montreal. With a few friends and 100 sandwiches, our founder Steel MacDonald starts bringing food downtown during the first lockdown.
Spring 2020
Weekly servings begin, run from the trunk of a car with donated groceries and meals.
March 2021
Our first large public event, with Sportira, brings food and essentials to hundreds of people outside Berri-UQAM metro.
June 2021
We get our own tent, and setting it up becomes part of every downtown serving.
October 2021
Welfare Avenue incorporates as a Quebec non-profit.
May 2022
CBC News features our student volunteers, the start of a year of news coverage.
October 2023
The Canada Revenue Agency registers Welfare Avenue as a charity.
September 2024
Our first Toronto serving: 36 meals, with a new student chapter.
December 2024
Our biggest cook yet: with Adaptavist, 15 volunteers cook more than 250 homemade meals in under six hours for local shelters.
December 2025
Our second Holiday Gift Basket Drive, with Scattered and CEP, hand-delivers more than 3,000 gifts across Montreal.
March 2026
Our first Ottawa event, with about 20 University of Ottawa student volunteers.
August 2026
Our first Community Kitchen, with DESTA Black Community Network, and a new brand built on one idea: service is solidarity, not charity.

Who we work with

We collaborate with shelters, community organizations, schools and businesses, because no one does this work alone.

Montreal

Sportira
Scattered
Community Engagement Project (CEP)
DESTA Black Community Network
Montreal Flag Football League
Adaptavist
Enactus Concordia
Concordia University

Toronto

Daily Bread Food Bank
Aangen Kitchen
Not Far From The Tree
Toronto Youth Food Policy Council
Toronto Metropolitan University

Ottawa

University of Ottawa

Companies that work with us

Teams from these companies have worked alongside us. Here it is in their own words, on LinkedIn.

January 2025 · LinkedIn
Adaptavist
Bryan’s post about the work Adaptavist did with us.
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June 2025 · LinkedIn
GHD
GHD’s post about a day with Welfare Avenue.
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July 2023 · LinkedIn
RBC
A post about our collaboration with RBC.
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Want to bring your team? Serve with us as a group

« Cet organisme est actuellement un maillon essentiel dans la réponse collective alimentaire que les organismes communautaires construisent face à cette crise. »

Translation: This organization is currently an essential link in the collective food response that community organizations are building in the face of this crisis.

François Bergeron, Executive Director, CDC Centre-Sud

Our team