With the advent of COVID-19, the needs of governments and community organizations are great. In recent weeks, Elder Michel J. Carter, an Area Seventy for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Canada, worked with Church leaders in different regions of Quebec to distribute cash and food donations.
Leaders of the Longueuil Quebec Stake initiated a Church donation of $10,000 to Moisson Rive-Sud, the largest food bank in the Montérégie region. The donation will help ensure food security for people living on the South Shore.
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“[Moisson Rive-Sud] greatly appreciates our donation. [They] explained that a $10,000 donation would allow them to offer the equivalent of $210,000 in food,” reported Manon de Bellefeuille Delisle, director of the Just Serve program for the Longueuil Quebec Stake.
The nearby Montreal Quebec Stake co-ordinated a Church donation of $6,620 to Accueil Bonneau, a leading organization that supports people experiencing homelessness. With this donation, the organization will be able to provide food and physical and psychological assistance to people in need.
Additionally, the Montreal Quebec and Montreal Quebec Mount Royal stakes organized a donation of a truckload of food valued at $50,000 to Moisson Montreal, the food bank that distributes the most food in Canada.
Richard D. Daneau, Moisson Montreal executive director, expressed his gratitude: “Moisson Montréal greatly appreciates the generosity of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during this period of crisis. This gift of nearly 900 cases of essential non-perishable foods of great variety will be quickly distributed to community organizations helping Montreallers in need.”
President Andrew Arbuckle, a counsellor in the Montreal Quebec Mount Royal Stake who accompanied the delivery, explained that Moisson Montreal has been “very short of dry, canned and non-perishable items because of COVID-19. Immediately following our delivery, forklifts were put into action, taking the food for delivery preparation. Most of the 16 skids of food were distributed within two days.”
At the provincial level, local leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints co-ordinated the donation of 12,000 N95 masks to the government of Quebec to support health-care workers in the fight against COVID-19.
“These humanitarian gestures are part of the global mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which contributed more than US$1 billion last year to humanitarian aid throughout the world, wherever the needs may be,” said Elder Carter.
With the help of its 16 million members worldwide, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has provided humanitarian assistance to more than 195 countries and territories through its humanitarian arm, Latter-day Saint Charities. All donations made to Latter-day Saint Charities are dedicated to humanitarian aid, without regard to race, religious affiliation or nationality.
In Quebec, more than 12,400 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints form 35 congregations that meet in English, French, Spanish and Mandarin.