NewsSimply Wonderful Spices Up the Food Bank Experience at the Welcome Hall Mission

MONTREAL September 11, 2012 – Today, over 350 families receiving food from St. Henry’s Welcome Hall Mission’s food bank were given more than just the regular food staples they usually receive – they were given a fresh, new idea as to how to prepare such foods. “Many of our families come from multicultural backgrounds where certain foods are not available to them. Because of this, they may not recognize certain foods or know how to prepare them,” explains Tania Togias, Director of Family Services.   “To be able to show these families a simple way of preparing these foods helps to empower them and reduce food wastage.”

Learning of this challenge, Simply Wonderful Catering offered to team up with Family Services at the Welcome Hall Mission to address this by developing and distributing copies of a simple recipe that uses the foods that are often distributed at the food bank, while also offering a taste of the recipe to each family.  “We’re here to help”, explains Simply Wonderful’s founder and owner Pamela Erskine-Layton, “we want to make an impact using the culinary knowledge and skills that my team and I possess.”

The recipe, a simple lentil-vegetable stew with pork or beef option, was printed for distribution in English, French and Spanish. Attached to each copy was a small bag of “herbes de Provence” for additional flavour in the stew. “People were really interested in the recipe, and those who tasted the sample really enjoyed it,” Togias says. 

About the Welcome Hall Mission

Welcome Hall Mission reaches out to the homeless, to needy families, new immigrants, street youth, and children by providing shelter, food, rehabilitation and social reinsertion programs, and personal counseling services all intended to break the cycle of poverty and to build a better life. Everyone deserves a second chance at life!

About Simply Wonderful

Simply Wonderful is a full service gourmet catering company based in Westmount, Quebec.  Founded by Pamela Erskine-Layton in 1998, Simply Wonderful has grown to become one of the main “go-to” caterers amongst its personal and corporate clients in downtown Montreal, Westmount and NDG.