Nicholas Ouellette, Administrator and Program Manager of the West Island Assistance Fund (WIAF) is at the forefront of efforts to combat food insecurity and support vulnerable populations in Montréal’s West Island. Since 1966, WIAF has been a lifeline for individuals and families facing financial and social difficulties, offering food, clothing, and essential services like a food bank, collective kitchen, garden, women’s support group, and even a thrift shop.
Describe your charity/non-profit/volunteer work in a few sentences. What problem does it aim to solve?
Since 1966, the West Island Assistance Fund (WIAF) of Montréal has been responding to the needs of individuals and families in our community who are faced with social and financial difficulties. We provide them with food and, when the need arises, we give out clothing and household items.
WIAF distributes more than $1,000,000 worth of goods and services annually. Help with food supply is our main activity and we consider it essential to offer our clients additional activities and services that will help their specific needs. Our service and program offerings range from our food bank, collective garden, collective kitchen, thrift shop, women’s support group, homeless backpack program and many more yearly events
Working towards the elimination of the causes of food insecurity and malnutrition in the West Island by focusing on the quality of our services and promoting the autonomy of our members.
When did you start/join it?
I joined the WIAF in spring of 2023 I am about to reach 2 years here!
What made you want to get involved?
I wanted to work in the community I have lived in my whole life to help those in my community. Whether they are new to the West Island or lived here their whole life, I want to support those in my community going through a difficult time.
What was the situation like when you started?
When I started, we had our 3 main programs, the food bank, the thrift shop and the collective garden. We were recovering from a fire in December of 2019 so the old lot where our offices were was turned into a garden and the thrift shop was unfortunately downsized.
How has it changed since?
Since I joined, we have also established 3 new continuous programs. A collective kitchen, a women’s support group, and a backpack program that supplies people experiencing homelessness with essentials.
Since I’ve been at the West Island Assistance Fund our clients have risen by almost 300 people and our donations and food drives have essentially been cut in half on average. If we used to receive 50 boxes of food from a food drive our first year, the second year it was at 25 boxes, another food drive that used to supply us with 150 boxes, dropped to 60 boxes. Essentially our demand has risen by approximately 25% and our yearly supply has dropped by approximately 50% since I have been a part of the organization.
What more needs to be done?
In terms of our organization, as we are growing, we are looking for a space to grow with us as well. 2026 will be our 60th anniversary, looking forward to the next 60 years we hope to have a space large enough to fit our needs as we continue to grow our offerings and serve our community. We hope to acquire the Roxboro Post Office—a space that holds immense potential as a permanent community hub and a beacon of hope for Pierrefonds-Roxboro. This would allow us to have more floor space for our thrift shop, move our community kitchen in-house as well as transform more food, and have more space to serve our clients and grow our program offerings.
In terms of our clients and food insecurity, our job is never finished. We often say that we aim to work ourselves out of a job, as we will never stop advocating for our clients and eliminate food insecurity. At each level of government, there is work to be done to protect our low-income population from food insecurity and related issues.
How can our readers help?
Your readers can help by donating money, food, clothes, and time.
– Monetary donations can be made here or in person at our office 21 Rue du Centre Commercial, Roxboro, QC H8Y 3K6. You can make donations for food bank purchases, our specific programs, our building fund, or just a donation in general.
– We always welcome food donations to our food bank at 23 Rue du Centre Commercial, Roxboro, QC H8Y 3K6.
– Clothes can be dropped off in our thrift shop or outside in our bins.
– Donating time as volunteers or on our board of directors to help our organization run smoothly.
Do you have any events coming up?
Our magazine launch for our thrift shop.
Our free tax clinic for low-revenue clients starts in March.
Where can we follow you?
Website | Facebook | Instagram
PAY IT FORWARD: What is an awesome local charity that you love?
Ricochet West Island. They are the only homeless shelter in the west island and they help us distribute backpacks for our We Got Your Back program!
