Welcome Hall Mission Inaugurates Men's Emergency Shelter Kitchen With Celebrity Chefs Hughes, Damman and Smiles

MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwired - April 20, 2016) - It was in the presence of three amazing chefs and many special guests that Welcome Hall Mission was proud to officially inaugurate today its new Men's Emergency Shelter Kitchen. Chuck Hughes, chef at Garde Manger and Food Network host, Derek Dammann, chef at Maison publique and author of True North, and Danny Smiles, chef at Le Bremner and Food Network host, all got together to visit the new facility and give a few culinary tips to the cooking staff present. They then proceeded to serve the homeless men throughout the dinner.

Thanks to generous donations from the Silver Dollar Foundation, Bridgeway Foundation and hundreds of Montrealers, the mission was able to completely redesign its men's emergency shelter kitchen. The renovations and ergonomic redesign of the kitchen space, together with the new equipment, now allows staff to move around and work more effectively, cutting preparation time in half and facilitating the preparation of meal plans ahead of time. It will also add the flexibility of serving a greater variety of food to more clients. But above all, Welcome Hall Mission hopes that this new kitchen will be able to provide some comfort and a measure of peace to the men who, day after day, struggle to survive in what is often a hostile and unforgiving environment.

"The overarching vision for the newly renovated kitchen was to restore a sense of dignity to homeless men and women, explained Cyril Morgan, Welcome Hall Mission CEO and Executive Director. We want to offer the men we serve with a great dining experience which means featuring food that is high-quality, flavourful, healthy, nutritious and above all delicious."

The Welcome Hall Mission kitchen was built in the 1960s when an average of 60 homeless men when coming for supper. Over the years, the level of poverty, and consequently, the demand for hot, nutritious meals has increased substantially. Since the caring organization now serves food to over 200 homeless individuals every night (450 per day if we include breakfast and lunch), it was imperative that the kitchen be redesigned and renovated with its obsolete equipment replaced.

More than preparing meals

The mission has successfully run socio-professional insertion programs for many years. "This is why the renovations were executed with a new vocational training program in mind, designed to help homeless men acquire valuable culinary skills to help them find rewarding job opportunities and to become self-sufficient," added Mr. Morgan. Other similar socio-professional insertion platforms operating at Welcome Hall Mission's multiservice centre, such as La Boutique and the food bank, have been successful at helping unemployed or underemployed individuals who lacked marketable vocational skills find new opportunities.

About the Men's Emergency Shelter

The services of the men's emergency shelter of Welcome Hall Mission are catering to the most basic needs of homeless men, such as food and shelter. Going beyond a simple band-aid solution, programs are designed to encourage men to get off the street, to put their lives back together, to fight their addictions, and to find concrete solutions to their problems with the goal of successfully reintegrating into society.

About Welcome Hall Mission

Since 1892, Welcome Hall Mission has been the largest doorway to help Montrealers in need. Many programs are available to support the homeless, young single mothers, families, children and youth. Welcome Hall Mission aims at giving them hope through concrete actions and effective solutions to help them improve their lives and reintegrate into society.

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