This local non-profit is striving to provide home-cooked meals to those in need in a safe, unconditionally loving space.
Project Love was founded in 2016 with the aim of providing meals to people in the community who are struggling to put food on the table. True to their name, Project Love maintains an environment of unconditional love and support for anyone who comes through their doors, both clients and volunteers alike.
“The volunteers are great, it’s very welcoming, it’s happy, it’s a good place. You leave all the bad stuff outside and come in and everyone’s even, everyone’s equal. There’s no judgment, which is really nice and something you don’t see very often anymore,” says Jennifer Collin, Project Love’s fundraising coordinator.
The non-profit serves dinner every Monday from 4-5:30 p.m. out of the basement of Mountjoy United Church. Dinners are served in take-out boxes that contain fruit, vegetables, a hot meal, and a dessert that is almost always homemade. Any children that go for dinner also receive school lunches for the following day, all year round. Every few weeks they set up a table of food that has been donated, from which clients can take one or two items, along with their regular meal. Collin says that while the meals are usually pretty generic and don’t have a lot of room for variations, they try to have substitutes on hand to account for any food allergies whenever possible.
Project Love is currently run by eight committee members and numerous volunteers, many of whom are high school students.
Collin started volunteering with Project Love in 2021 and has noticed a sharp increase in the number of people accessing their services in the past two years.
She says they had about 100 to 120 regular clients back then, which has since grown to 190 to 200 people who show up on a regular basis. The volunteers also make extra meals when they can, but as Collin has seen, hunger and food insecurity can touch just about anyone in the community — including those who you might not expect.
“We always try to remind people that there’s not just one type of person that’s coming here. It’s someone’s grandmother, it’s somebody’s parents, it’s somebody’s sibling. It’s children that don’t ask to be put in predicaments with money being hard,” Collin says.
“It’s across the board. We have a lot of families who are living on budgets, we have a lot of elderly people that are starting to come, and people you see in the community who have jobs, but they’re minimum wage. We even have a lot of the new international students that come as well now because they live on a budget. So it’s very, very diverse,” she says.
“Sometimes people don’t understand that on the other side, but not everybody that comes here has the issues that they think. Most of them are just down on their luck.”
There are no requirements to receive a meal from Project Love, and no need for anyone to prove their need. They ask for only two things: that everyone be respectful, and that they be present.
“We respect you, and we expect that respect back, you know? You can’t disrespect my volunteers if you want to come here,” Collin says.
Due to the nature of how they operate — almost entirely funded by community donations and run by volunteers — they have a limited amount of food prepared each week and are not able to give out meals for anyone who isn’t present to pick it up for themselves. It is a rule that is upheld without exceptions, even for regular visitors.
“You can’t say yes to one and no to another, so it’s always very strict,” Collin says.
Collin also says that while the ability to deliver to people who have difficulties leaving the house due to health, age, or any other reason would be nice, it’s just not feasible for them.
“In a perfect world, it would be great, but we can’t. It’s hard to ask for volunteers to give more because we do have volunteers that are here two to three times a week. They give up afternoons and Sundays and so it’s hard to ask them that,” Collin says.
“We’re very fortunate that all of our funding comes from the community. We have some that we’ve applied for through some of the businesses here in town, but most of it is donations. We do get a lot of food donations and a lot of money donations, so that helps,” she says.
Those in the community who wish to help Project Love can donate money or food items. The group is also always open to new volunteers. Those looking to volunteer their time can reach out via their Facebook page, or by emailing them at [email protected].
