Grade 8 girl in Montreal donating time and meals to help the homeless

A Grade 8 student in Montreal partnered with Cote-Saint-Luc BBQ to provide hot meals for homeless people in the city.

A Grade 8 Montreal student is spreading holiday cheer with one meal at a time.

Isabella Guy says the idea was sparked by a charitable visit in 2022.

“We made sandwiches and then we gave them to the homeless, and I really enjoyed doing it,” she said.

Guy decided she wanted to do more, so she began reaching out to her community.

She partnered with Côte-St-Luc BBQ to secure warm meals, and raised funds at her elementary and high schools: Children’s World Academy and Royal West Academy.

She enlisted the help of friends and family, and soon Operation Hot Meals was born.

“I’ve been doing this for three years. The past two years, I’ve been just donating to Old Brewery Mission and the Pavilion Women’s Centre, but now, this year that we have so many meals, I’m donating to more,” Guy told CTV News.

Through the initiative, more than 2,500 meals of chicken, sides and desserts will go to seven Montreal shelters over the holiday season, including the Old Brewery Mission.

With Montreal facing the highest concentration of homelessness in Quebec, and many fighting food insecurity, Guy is calling on others to get involved.

“It’s like a really big problem around the world and every meal that you can give counts,” she said.

She even got the help of former NHL player Georges Laraque.

“She wrote to me in my fan mail,” he said. “But what I did since I’m on the radio every day, I asked my listeners to come and donate meals. There’s so many people that are going to be able to benefit from all these meals. [...] And that young girl, what she did hopefully will inspire many other kids.”