P’tit Québec has a long history of bringing Quebecers together around delicious meals. That’s why we’ve made it our mission to bring communities together, one initiative at a time.
What else brings people together in villages across Quebec? From birthdays and bingo nights to weddings, reunions and activities, church basements have always served as communal gathering spaces. Unfortunately, they’ve seen better days.
That’s why we’ve decided to restore church basements to their former glory. Each year, a town or village is selected, and a tailor-made project is developed to address a local issue. The objective is always the same: to bring community members closer together.
This year, we visited the city of Saint-Léonard-de-Portneuf!
The project is currently underway! The 1,100 residents of Saint-Léonard-de-Portneuf will soon have a new community hub in the church basement, featuring a collective kitchen. The kitchen will help bring food solidarity to the town by turning food donations into meals.
The city will be hosting various events and activities, such as cooking classes, family gatherings and celebrations, weekly get-togethers for people living alone, and a lot more.
Stay tuned for photos and videos of the project, which will be published in the coming weeks.
"What we see here is that we’ll be able to make food with a big team, to feed 30 to 40 people at each work session.”
How did we create a new gathering space in the basement of the Saint-Léonard-de-Portneuf church?
Collective Kitchen
- Purchase, assembly and construction of a complete, optimized and functional kitchen, designed for collective purposes;
- Research and design of a kitchen perfectly and specifically tailored to the community’s needs;
- Restoration and painting of the walls;
- Installation of storage cabinets to maximize space;
- Construction of a custom-made counter;
- Purchase and installation of commercial-grade stainless-steel counters;
- Purchase and installation of high-quality commercial appliances;
- Purchase of utensils, pots, pans and all other necessary accessories to enable the community to cook;
- Purchase of stools to facilitate intergenerational cooking workshops;
- Purchase and installation of tiles.
Community Hall
- Complete renovation of the space to encourage and promote gatherings;
- Restoration and painting to make it brighter and more welcoming;
- Purchase of decorative elements to make it warmer and more inviting;
- Creation of a mural by a local artist;
- Purchase and installation of curtains to create a storage area.
Donations
- $60,000 for the creation of a collective kitchen and a versatile community space;
- A $10,000 donation to the community to invest in their collective well-being.
Where should we head next year?
P’tit Québec will be back on the road in 2026, to continue its not-so-small projects aimed at bringing all of Quebec’s communities together.
If you’d like P’tit Québec to make a difference in your town next year, please fill out the form below!