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.
Volunteer · Montreal
Every second Sunday in downtown Montreal: cook, drive, serve or take photos.
Volunteer · Toronto
Once a month, volunteers cook together at a community centre for shelters and community organizations across the city.
Partner with us
Schools, clubs and companies: bring your group to cook, serve or give with us.
Coming up
Fundraisers, tournaments and drives through the year. Come to the next one.
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.
Building pathways in our community
The E that moves
Why our E is long
Look at the E in Avenue: three bars that reach forward, like a path. That is the idea behind everything we do. A first meal opens the way, and from there we walk with people toward what comes next: essentials, community services, housing and health resources.
Our mission
Welfare Avenue is a youth-powered charity fighting food insecurity and poverty through direct community action, bringing meals and essential support to people where they are.
Our vision
A world without poverty, where everyone has what they need and the opportunities open to them, and where community engagement is a central value from a young age.
How we work
Solidarity, not charity. We lead with the person, not their circumstance, and everyone who comes to a serving is part of our community.
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
CityNews Montreal met our student volunteers
Reporter Pamela Pagano spoke with our student volunteers for CityNews Montreal. CBC News and CTV News have covered our volunteers since 2022 too.
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.