Welfare Avenue
We meet people where they are
Welfare Avenue is a youth-powered charity fighting food insecurity and poverty through direct community action. We bring meals and essential support to people where they are, then connect them with the services they need.
Find support
Free home-cooked meals every second Sunday in downtown Montreal, and a hand finding the services you need.
Volunteer
Give a few hours on a Sunday: serve, cook, drive or take photos with a youth-powered team.
Donate
Your gift puts home-cooked meals on the table and keeps essentials moving all year.
Volunteers
A few hours can make a meaningful difference.
Cook, drive, serve or take photos. Be part of the engine connecting people to the help they need, and build leadership skills while creating measurable impact.
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.
Our main focus
- 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 activities
How and where we work
Every second Sunday, our volunteers serve home-cooked meals in downtown Montreal. Pick a Sunday and join the team.
What partners say
« 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.
In the news
CBC News, CTV News and CityNews have covered our volunteers since 2022.
Newsletter
Occasional news. Meaningful updates.
News from our kitchens and the streets we serve, volunteer call-outs and ways to help, about once a month.
Sign-ups open soon. In the meantime, write to us at info@welfareavenue.com.