NDG Food Depot to close for 1 week, reopen at new location on Somerled Ave.
Depot will be closed until early October, but satellite food markets will continue as planned
The NDG Food Depot will be closed from Sept. 25 to Oct. 1 as the community organization moves into its new home on Somerled Avenue.
After years of uncertainty, the Depot found a new temporary location in August, signing a lease to move into a vacant restaurant space at 6450 Somerled Avenue.
The regular services will not be offered while the Depot is closed.
However, two regular satellite food markets will still be running from 3:30 – 6:30 p.m. at the Walkley Centre on Wednesday, Sept. 27 and by the St. Raymond's Community Centre in Georges-Saint-Pierre Park on Thursday, Sept. 28.
The Depot officially reopens Oct. 2, with the first food basket and meal service to take place Oct. 3, from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The Depot has to move out of its regular location at Trinity Anglican Memorial Church because the building is closing due to lack of "financial sustainability."
The new location is a solution, but a temporary one — their lease is only for three years and the space isn't big enough to house their administrative team.
"It's an old restaurant located in the Fielding-Walkley neighbourhood. Fielding-Walkey is NDG's largest food desert," the depot's executive director, Daniel Rotman, said.
The NDG Food Depot has been helping the community for the past 31 years. It offers emergency food baskets, free meals and cooking classes, among other things.