CAFÉ FRANCIS

Conférence Saint-François d’Assise
This conference has been active for more than 60 years. We are a group of 5 members who help individuals, families and homeless people each month with food vouchers, furniture, clothing and referrals to other services in the community. Café Francis was created in 2014 by following the teachings of Pope Francis. We opened our hearts to the people of our community. CAFÉ FRANCIS’ was named after Pope Francis.

The opening of CAFÉ FRANCIS
With the support of our pastor, Friar Alix Poulin, space in the basement of Église Saint-François d’Assise was allotted to us to operate a café. We were able to operate with the help of parishioners making donations. We started to offer breakfast (tea, coffee, milk, muffins and biscuits) then realized after 3 months that the demand was even greater for lunch time. We started to serve lunch (soup, sandwiches, shepherd’s pie, turkey with mashed potatoes and vegetables, hot dogs, grilled cheese sandwiches etc.). We serve approximately 35-40 people each Saturday for lunch. Café Francis has become a place to meet people, speak freely with us and our spiritual advisor and also with each other. Building a library was a suggestion from one individual who attended regularly.

The library
The library is situated inside Café Francis, where people can read novels, magazines, the Bible etc. They can borrow any of the books to take home and are welcome to come back for new ones. The library has created a positive social aspect to our little café.