“This is an HLM. You’ll notice there’s a lot of cologne,” says Terri Leckner as she waves her hand through the perfumed air. Leckner explains that the heavy aroma permeating her lobby is caused by two men who live in her residence. 

The 69-year-old is wearing bright red lipstick and a pretty dress with flowers on it. She uses a walker to make her way through the building where she lives with other low income seniors and people with disabilities.

 

It takes her a long time to reach the gazebo on the lawn. When she sits down, she points to the flower garden in the distance and smiles. She says the garden is the reason she got involved with The Depot Community Food Center. 

The NDG non-profit organization not only helps the neighbourhood’s low income residents access healthy food. It also aims to reduce social isolation through a variety of projects such as community gardens. After a Depot employee helped create a garden at her HLM, Leckner become one of The Depot’s participants and volunteers.

 “The Depot makes it feel almost welcoming if you need help. We have a thing in Jewish culture called Tzedakah. You help people. It’s not considered, when you call the synagogue for help, that you are begging or not as rich as other people,” says Leckner

“The Depot is very special to a lot of people because you are treated as if you are coming into a high class restaurant. You are asked ‘where would you like to sit and what do you want to eat.’ In the old days, you’d just get your bag of food and leave,” she says.

The dancer, actress, poet and musician has lived alone at her HLM for nine years. She’s been through some tough times. When she was child, she had to undergo a series of operations. At 19, she suffered from a breakdown while performing on stage. It landed her in the hospital. It was decades before she was finally given the right medication. 

“I was very athletic but not the strongest person internally. I feel my soul all the time. And I don’t know about most people, but I feel it here,” says Leckner, pointing to her stomach. 

Leckner says that once she was on the right medication, she was able to recover by doing things like knitting, making pizza, walking and doing volunteer work. She says one of her favourite things to do when she’s in a good mood is play guitar on her balcony or listen to glam metal music and wave at the people walking by.

Leckner says she really appreciates how her co-workers at The Depot make her feel. 

“There is a fellow named Nico at The Depot. He said to me,‘You’re part of our team.’ I didn’t know that. Sometimes I will sit in my apartment and think who am I?” 

“The Depot is a wonderful place” she says. 

Leckner found her way to a community that cares about her through a garden. This is a process Concordia graduate student Andrea Tremblay knows a lot about. 

For the past two years, she’s been transforming part of the Loyola campus into a vegetable garden in order to create what she calls a “community of care.” 

Last year Tremblay was able to get a group of student volunteers, underprivileged seniors and cancer patients to work together in her garden. Caring for each other and for strangers in need happened naturally. 

“When my volunteers were working in the garden, they all made sure there was enough food to bring to The Hive’s [a Concordia student co-op] free lunches. It was so important to them. They would check with me and ask, ‘So did you bring the food?’” says Tremblay. 

Tremblay also created her garden in order to empower her volunteers. She explains that in the mid 1800s The City Beautiful Movement, a response to industrialization, swept Montreal of its last remaining vestiges of urban agriculture and farming.

“If you were food insecure in those times you would barter for a pig and by December, when your vegetables and fruits were running out you killed the pig. Then you had meat for the next few months. And then you bartered for more. But suddenly you weren’t allowed to keep pigs or cows in your yard, and you couldn’t do this anymore,” says Tremblay.

“People like seniors get pushed aside with the feeling they can no longer participate in the economy. Well there are many ways they can participate, and the garden is one way,” she says.

But this year the pandemic threw a wrench into Tremblay’s plans. Due to COVID safety precautions, the university won’t allow her any volunteers, even though the garden forms part of her master’s thesis. 

Tremblay decided to do all the work herself. She has spent 25-30 hours a week in the garden and donates her harvest to The Depot and other community organizations. 

Tremblay says to her surprise, she found a sense of community, even though she was working alone. She became friends with the families who were teaching their kids to ride bikes in the parking lot and developed relationships with people walking their dogs. 

“Everyone who walks by looks at the garden and everyone comments. All the Greeks and Italians want to buy my zucchini flowers. It was great,” she says. 

NDGers who are looking for a way to help their community will have the opportunity this Saturday, September 25 when Mofitness Montreal holds their open house and fundraiser for The Depot.

“We chose The Depot because we were looking for an organization that aligned with our business and we love that the depot promotes healthy eating and helps people learn to cook and garden,” says Moses Nguno of MoFitness Montreal. 

The fitness center will teach 30 minute sample fitness classes. They’ll also hold fitness challenge competitions and kickboxing demonstrations. 

A minimum $10 donation to The Depot gets you into a class. While The Depot only accepts cash donations, MoFitness Montreal will also be accepting non-perishable items which they’ll bring to a local food bank. 

The center is located at 2023 Decarie. To register for the open house please visit  www.bobclass/classes/mofitness, email the center at [email protected] or call 514-444-6031