Santropol Roulant

Santropol Roulant is an award-winning community organization based in the Plateau neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The organization uses food as a vehicle to break isolation and build bridges between individuals and generations. Unlike most meals on wheels organizations, Santropol Roulant's staff and volunteer base consists mainly of younger people. The meals on wheels service provides 80 to 100 evening meals five days a week, prepared and delivered by over 100 volunteers. Most of the meals are delivered on foot or by bicycle to the homes of seniors and people living with a loss of autonomy.

History
Santropol Roulant was founded in 1995 by Chris Godsall, 25, and Keith Fitzpatrick, 27 who were waiters at the Café Santropol, a restaurant on Saint Urbain Street. Their experience volunteering in traditional meals on wheels organizations led them to recognize the value in intergenerational exchange. They decided to start their own service, with young volunteers serving seniors and others living with a loss of autonomy. The café generously donated a kitchen space across the street, and to honour this donation, the founders named it Santropol Roulant, meaning Santropol on Wheels. In 2010, the organization relocated to its current address at 111 Roy est.

Meals on Wheels
Evening meals are delivered every day of the week except Sunday and Thursday. Volunteers cook and assemble the meals in morning and afternoon kitchen shifts in time for the departure of the delivery volunteers in the mid-afternoon. There are several delivery routes for volunteers who go on foot or on bike, including Mile End, Outremont, Centre Sud, McGill, McGill West, Downtown, and Westmount. There are also two car routes, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Côte-des-Neiges that require a driver and passenger, using cars provided by the Nissan Canada Foundation and Mtl Auto Prix.

Clients, who must be referred by health care or social services professionals, pay $6.00 for the balanced nutritious meals, which can be customized for a wide variety of dietary needs and preferences. Those with financial constraints may pay $4.50. The meal includes a main course made with fresh and local vegetables and organic meat, two side dishes and an "extra" - a dessert, green salad, or fruit salad. An annual calendar with the entire year's schedule of meals is published, allowing clients to order by their preferences. The money contributed by the clients covers half the cost of the meals.

Volunteers
As mentioned above, the volunteers of Santropol Roulant are primarily young Montrealers from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. Many are university, CEGEP or high school students. The organization operates bilingually.

Sustainability
Members of the Santropol Roulant community have long been conscious of environmental issues, but recently the organization has made sustainability a key focus. A number of initiatives have been undertaken, including vermicomposting 71% the kitchen waste, transforming the exceeding food production in canning or frozen meals, reducing the use of plastic bags, using organic and locally grown foods when possible, using only sustainable fish species, growing vegetables in the Rooftop Garden Project, encouraging the use of bicycles in the city.

Financing
In 2018, Santropol Roulant had total revenues of $1,177,442 and total expenses of $1,173,375. The bulk of revenues came from foundations and organizations, the federal and provincial governments, United Way, and from fundraising initiatives and individual donations. The organization also makes use of youth employment programmes to offset the salaries of full-time employees.