Moisson Outaouais steps up efforts to feed students

In response to a growing need among schools in the Outaouais region to help students facing food insecurity, Moisson Outaouais rose to the challenge in 2019 and built a kitchen to prepare and distribute meals. The organization has now successfully increased the number of schools served from six to ten. Funding for the expansion of this project was provided by Food Banks Canada through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s School Food Infrastructure Fund (SFIF).

A modern kitchen for more efficient production

According to David Grégoire, Operations Director at Moisson Outaouais, coordination is a major challenge for the organization, which currently prepares about 700 meals per day. Thanks to funding from Food Banks Canada obtained through the SFIF, Moisson Outaouais was able to expand its kitchen, purchase modernized equipment and acquire an electric delivery vehicle. These improvements have reduced the risk of errors, streamlined distribution and cut meal preparation time by about 1.5 hours per day, from 4 hours down to 2.5 hours, enabling the organization to prepare more than 500 additional meals per day.

The project’s expansion has also made it possible to reach 300 more students per day, all while doubling the number of meals prepared. Moisson Outaouais even expects to be able to serve 500 additional students a day starting in September 2026.

A valued service with guaranteed impact

To ensure customer satisfaction, Moisson Outaouais regularly sends out surveys and adapts its operations based on the feedback received. As a result, the menu has expanded from three options to five, featuring more fresh local ingredients, and parents can now place orders as late as 7 a.m. on the same day.

To guarantee students’ anonymity, parents can select a meal for their child via an online platform. Meals are delivered directly to the school, and all the children eat together, regardless of whether the parent has paid for the meal or not.

For David Grégoire, the human impact of the project is clear: “From the food bank’s perspective, a lot of food is redistributed, but we don’t know where it all goes. In schools, the food goes directly to the kids, and we know it. That motivates us to look at the actual impact and measure it.”

Partnerships for fresher, more local menus

The project has also enabled Moisson Outaouais to support the local agricultural economy by partnering with regional producers—Ferme Chapeau Melon and Ferme aux Pleines Saveurs—to source local fruits and vegetables during the summer. Surplus produce is frozen to ensure that ingredients from the Outaouais region are available year-round.

Thanks to support from Équiterre and the Institut de tourisme et d'hôtellerie du Québec (ITHQ), the menu is designed to include at least 50% local ingredients. The ITHQ also helped Moisson Outaouais redesign its kitchen to prepare meals more efficiently.

In addition to being prepared with locally sourced ingredients, the meals are approved by nutritionists from La cantine pour tous, which is responsible for distributing meals in schools. This ensures that students receive balanced and nutritious meals.

Looking ahead

Moisson Outaouais now hopes to build on this momentum and plans to double the size of its kitchen, increasing its maximum capacity to 2,200 meals per day and expanding the project to include more schools. More collaborations with regional agricultural businesses are also on the horizon.

David Grégoire sums up Moisson Outaouais’ vision for the project as follows: “Taking action always involves risks, but it would be even riskier to do nothing. We are 100% confident that action is needed in schools.” With its modernized facilities and strong partnerships, Moisson Outaouais has made it its mission to support the well-being of the region’s students.

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