‘Hunger comes 365 days a year’: Moisson Outaouais celebrates another successful yea

Djeneba Dosso

On April 20, Moisson Outaouais held their first event entitled ‘Celebrate the Outaouais,’ an opportunity for the regional food bank to formally thank their donors and sponsors.

Held in Restaurant Le Rituel and hosted by Guy Leblanc, the cocktail reception which began at 5PM had an award ceremony, an art auction, live music featuring local artists and a special appearance from Gatineau mayor and guest speaker France Bélisle on the agenda.

“This is the first time we have organized this event and we would really like to put faces to the names,” Armand Kayolo, General Director of Moisson Outaouais explained.  “It’s a way to honor them [donors and partners] because they do so much for our mission. It’s also a way to celebrate the Outaouais.”

Moisson Outaouais opened its doors in 2004 with the goal of helping their member organizations fight food insecurity across the Outaouais region. What started out as a small operation quickly gained momentum and as of 2022, the regional food bank has 72 member organizations in their network over an area of 30,000 square kilometers — 23 being community and public partners while 50 make up for organizations.

“We work with organizations that are either food banks, family homes or soup kitchens and so on,” Kayolo said. “We also have a partnership for the distribution of trays that we prepare here and distribute throughout the Outaouais region, of which we have 23 members.”

On average, Moisson Outaouais feeds roughly 5,000 Outaouais residents weekly. Out of that number, 93% of their food, resources and funding comes from donations and their partners while 7% comes from the provincial government.

“Moisson Outaouais feeds more or less 20,000 people per month and this is done 24 hours a day, 12 months a year, so we always need funding in the sense that we depend on income that comes from donations.”

Events like ‘Celebrate the Outaouais’ are an opportunity to raise donations with all the profits from the $50 tickets going to the food bank along with the sales from the auction which featured donated art from Outaouais artists Jean-Yves Guindon, Josee Francoeur, Jacinta Aungier and Raymond Warren reaching up to $1,600.

During the evening, Kayolo was tasked with awarding the most prominent donors and sponsors such as Kruger, RONA and Otto’s Subaru to name a few, with glass trophies as thanks for their role in supporting Moisson Outaouais’ mission throughout the years.

“We are very proud to pay tribute to our partners, who ensure the continuity of our mission. This is an evening that will bring the business community together and a chance to thank them for all they have done over the past year, [2022] both financially and in product donations.”

Photo cap:

Photo 1: Moisson Outaouais General Director Armand Kayolo posing besides Daniel Morneau from Kruger Products L.P. The General Director of the tissue products manufacturer received an award for being a consistent and generous donor and sponsor of Moisson Outaouais. (DD) Photo: Courtesy