How one organization in Longueuil, Que., is helping people with schizophrenia make ends meet

Tyson Bernard-Hutton is cool, calm and collected as he prepares meals for about 20 people during lunch hour at Initium's kitchen in Longueuil, Que.

The non-profit organization offers three free meals per day to its members, most of whom have schizophrenia. It also operates a food bank on Fridays.

"It was born out of a necessity [for] the members," said Bernard-Hutton, who is a member himself. "Everyone should at least be able to eat regardless of how."

He's been working as the chef at Initium for the last three years through a government program called PAAS Action, which supports the reintegration of people with limited capacity for employment into the workforce — also one of Initium's missions. 

Bernard-Hutton speaks with pride about the food he serves and the people he helps. 

"People … tell me they're happy with my cooking. It makes me feel good," he said. 

Out of his kitchen flows pasta dishes, pizza, Mexican-style subs, chicken and rice, lentil curries and more. At home, he sticks to cold cut sandwiches and Kraft Dinner to keep his costs low.

When Initium was first founded in 2000, it was called D'un couvert à l'autre, meaning "Cover to cover," referring to book covers, says Bernard-Hutton. "You feel like you're being covered, you're being protected by someone. Everyone needs that," he said. 

The majority of Initium's members receive social assistance, explains Marco Chan, Initium's on-site kinesiologist and intervention worker.

He says members especially lean on the organization toward the end of the month when their welfare money starts to wither.

"On top of the mental health, on top of the social anxiety, on top of [having] a hard time finding a job and having the welfare last them the entire month, it is a hard thing for them to be able to go and get food, especially in this current climate," said Chan. 

Just over 40 per cent of people who accessed food banks in Quebec this year declared welfare as their primary source of income, according to Food Banks of Quebec's Hunger Count.

Economist Geoffroy Boucher says that doesn't surprise him, adding that that percentage is up from 2022 (37.5 per cent.) 

That year, 15 per cent of welfare beneficiaries were experiencing severe food insecurity, which is when a person extensively and repeatedly reduces their food intake, says Boucher, who works at the Observatoire québécois des inégalités, a non-profit organization exploring economic inequalities in Quebec.