MONTREAL -- A team of about a dozen people at the Welcome Hall Mission spent Christmas putting together the shelter’s annual Christmas meals, which featured balanced plates of soup, zucchini and pork, or garlic beef, soup and mushrooms, among other combinations.

The Mission putting together gourmet holiday meals for the needy is a tradition. But this year, the dining experience won’t be quite the same. Some 600 meals are being delivered using a refrigeration truck the shelter bought as the pandemic began. 

“The key consideration for the truck for delivering food is the safety of the food,” said Welcome Hall CEO Sam Watts. “We take safety very seriously.” 

The truck has its work cut out for it, as many places housing homeless people have changed around since the pandemic began. It makes deliveries to places like the shelter at the site of the former hotel at Place Dupuis, the Mission’s Acorn Street shelter and the shelter at the former site of the Royal Victoria Hospital. 

“Despite the pandemic, Welcome Hall Mission, in 2020, has served more people in more ways than every before in its 128 year history thanks to the incredible generosity of our donors and partners and the energy and devotion of our incredible staff and volunteers,” Watts said.