{"id":21171,"date":"2019-09-23T15:52:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T19:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/blog\/darquis\/"},"modified":"2021-03-19T15:41:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T19:41:53","slug":"finding-sustenance-from-food-and-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/blog\/finding-sustenance-from-food-and-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding sustenance from food\u2026 and family"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Darquis lives in a food desert. He goes to a Centraide-supported agency to eat better and spend time with his adopted family!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy name is Darquis. I\u2019ve lived in my neighbourhood for five years. A few months ago, I started going to La P\u2019tite Maison to try and help other people\u2014and myself\u2014become part of the community again. Since having an accident a few years ago, I had been isolating myself and needed to do something to get back into the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I left home when I was 15 because I didn\u2019t fit in. I was a figure skater, ballet dancer and musician in a small town that was all about baseball and hockey. I travelled across Canada. I first moved to Toronto, where I met my wife. But when the rent became too expensive, we decided to move to Quebec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was in a serious work accident\u2014I was crushed by 800 kg of Plexiglas\u2014and can no longer work. Then my wife died, and I found myself all alone with my son. She was my world and the rock of our family. I felt so alone. I started hiding out in my basement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, I ran into a case worker from La P\u2019tite Maison at a food bank. She invited me to the agency\u2019s activities, but I didn\u2019t want to go. After a few months of her insisting, I finally said yes. I couldn\u2019t believe it! I found a new family. It was like I had come home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone wants to decide how their home is managed. That\u2019s why people (like me) come here and do things. When I started working in the garden, they said, \u201cIf you have ideas, share them with us and we\u2019ll help you implement them.\u201d In fact, thanks to the garden, I feel like I\u2019m back to work at a new job. I can\u2019t stand sitting around my house anymore. I feel like I have a purpose in life. And I want to show my son that there\u2019s nothing you can\u2019t overcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We live in an area where there\u2019s nothing to eat, as the neighbourhood has no food markets. People who live here, especially seniors, have nowhere to go to get healthy food. Most don\u2019t have a car, so the only option is to use public transit or paratransit, or to ask a friend for a ride just to go to the grocery store. I\u2019m doing better now, but five years ago, the idea of getting on a bus to run errands a few kilometres away was daunting. So I had to go to the depanneur, which cost me double the price. That\u2019s what people do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At La P\u2019tite Maison, we have a weekly stand that sells affordable fruits and vegetables. You can get a full paper bag\u2019s worth for two dollars. Right now we only have sprouts, because we just launched the program. But by the end of the summer, we\u2019ll have tomatoes, cucumbers, celery\u2014everything. We\u2019re trying to start a food system with a garden, market and purchasing group. When I get to La P\u2019tite Maison, they always ask if I have food at home. If I\u2019ve run out, they always find something for me in the fridge or the pantry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Darquis <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Darquis lives in a food desert. He goes to a Centraide-supported agency to eat better and spend time with his adopted family! \u201cMy name is Darquis. I\u2019ve lived in my neighbourhood for five years. A…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"945,1007,968,990,948,980","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[663],"tags":[],"content-type":[709],"sector":[120],"class_list":["post-21171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essential-needs","content-type-testimonials","sector-lachine"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-18 06:03:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21171"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23821,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21171\/revisions\/23821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21171"},{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=21171"},{"taxonomy":"sector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sector?post=21171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}