SERVING A COMMUNITY
Aché Alhadji prepares a meal at Saint Columba House, founded in 1917. Much has changed in Point St-Charles over a century, Allison Hanes says, but not its mission.
The smell of roasted chicken and potatoes wafted out of the kitchen of Saint Columba House as diners lined up for lunch Monday.
Some hungry souls had been there for hours, lingering in the dining room of the Point StCharles community centre while they waited for the 11:30 weekday service. Others arrived right in time to eat. There were older men and women, mothers with toddlers, a handful of schoolchildren. Then there was the staff at the house, and the participants in their various programs.
“We feed everyone,” said chef Aché Alhadji, who whips up lunch for up to 120 people, five days a week with the help of volunteers. “For many of them, they get one meal a day and it’s here.” Diners get a hot lunch for $2. If they’re lucky, Alhadji said, there will be enough food left over to take home for dinner.
Saint Columba House has been serving lunch to the less fortunate since the Great Depression.
But the charitable institution’s history in the traditionally working class neighbourhood stretches back much further than that.
Saint Columba House turns 100 this year, a milestone that will be celebrated at a gala fundraising event Thursday.
Founded in 1917 by United Church Rev. William R. Cruikshank, Saint Columba House grew out of the Settlement House Movement that took root in England during the Industrial Revolution. These churchsponsored community centres offered assistance to the working class and the poor in the areas where they worked — long before the rise of the social welfare state made government the main provider of such services.
Based on the philosophy of justice, not charity, the movement gained ground in Montreal near the homes of the labourers who toiled in the steel mills and textile factories that once lined the Lachine Canal, Canada’s historic economic corridor.
“It was cutting edge then and it’s cutting edge now, to be in the community, with the community rather than waiting for them to come to you,” said Rev. Patricia Lisson, the director of Saint Columba House for the last nine years.
Its work is funded mainly by the United Church, various charitable foundations and individual donations, but it also gets some public funding from three levels of government.
Much has changed in Point St-Charles over a century, Lisson said, but much remains the same.
Saint Columba House has been there through it all.
The Lachine Canal was closed down in 1959, putting many residents out of work as the industries were shuttered. Eventually, the canal was redeveloped into a recreational corridor and factories were transformed into high-end condos. Now, like many parts of Montreal, the Point is undergoing a certain amount of gentrification as families renovate duplexes into trendy cottages a stone’s throw from the city centre. Yet the neighbourhood still has many social and cooperative housing complexes — which means there is growing income disparity and there are still hungry mouths to feed.
“Some of our most valuable work is around food,” said Lisson.
Saint Columba House recently upgraded its kitchen in the old, red brick building it occupies on Grand Trunk St. It has a garden to help feed those who come for the lunch program and it teaches some neighbourhood residents how to grow produce in buckets on the roof so they can take home fresh fruit and vegetables to eat.
But Saint Columba House nourishes the mind as a well as the body, starting with the Point’s youngest residents.
There is a weekly mom-andtots group and an “alternate school” for 3- and 4-year-olds four days a week that is somewhere between a daycare and a preschool. Coordinator Émilie Jacques, who herself attended as a child, said the focus is on preparing youngsters — and their parents — for school.
“We believe that if you’re involved in your child’s education early, success is a lot more attainable,” Jacques said.
Saint Columba House also has after-school programs for children at nearby schools in Grades 1 to 6.
Coordinator Catherine McPherson said the goal is to reinforce core math and literacy skills for younger kids and prepare older students for high school.
Again, the service is familycentred.
“We try to make sure the parents have a voice in the program,” said McPherson. “We want parents to participate. We try to support them in what they’re going through as well.”
There is also a day program for intellectually challenged adults that helps them work on life skills, said Melissa Chamberlain, the coordinator of Hand in Hand.
“What we do a lot of the time is empower them through activities and social inclusion,” she said.
“They are as worthy as anyone else ... They all have something to contribute.”
Kathy Schumann has been attending for 10 years.
“We do art, we do math,” she said. “We do reading, we do library, we do computer and we do music.
“This, I don’t like,” Schumann said pointing at a crossword puzzle.
“This, I’m pretty good at,” she said, indicating a word search.
A century of being close to the people means Saint Columba House is responsive to the changing needs of the diverse population it serves.
“We always try to have an open ear,” said Lisson. “We have been here for a long time. We have that history. We have that trust.”