Alain Larose and Sylvain Perrier: The Food Drive

Here, read the transcript of the interview with Alain Larose and Sylvain Perrier, a firefighter and an eligible firefighter in the Saint-Eustache Fire Safety Department.

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Sylvain: The mission of the food drive is basically to raise money. We ask for donations from the people of Saint-Eustache. But there are definitely people from other cities who come to Saint-Eustache. We raise money for people in need in Saint-Eustache. It allows them to have food, and a little money. And, of course, it’s clear that it’s during the holidays.

Alain: Yeah, it’s really appreciated. Often… when we’re doing a roadblock… people say to us: “There was a time when I needed it, so thanks very much, I was able to take advantage of it.”

Sylvain: That’s right. “You helped us a lot back then.” And it’s… often they’ll say to us, “Now it’s our turn to give back…

Alain: Yeah.

Sylvain: … to people who are in need now.”

Alain: Exactly. So, it’s really appreciated. And… I think we really enjoy doing it too.

Sylvain: Yeah.

Alain: It gives us… a good feeling. Personally, for a long time, I… I do it first of all as a gift to myself.

Sylvain: Exactly.

Alain: And after that, it’s great that it helps other people too. It’s gratifying.

Sylvain: That’s right. Every year, as we said, if… Because it’s been more than 25 years now, and every year, we’ve passed on… often it’s quite a lot of money. If we weren’t there one year, there would be no perishables. They wouldn’t be able to do it. Really, it’s us, every year, we provide the necessary meat,  bread, and milk.

Alain: You mentioned the amount of money. What is it? Before, we’d fundraise for three, four days. We’d raise between $10,000 and $15,000. Today, we do that in one day.

Sylvain: One day.

Alain: And we raise the same amount… It’s true, when you do it for three or four days, you’re often asking the same people. So eventually, they’ve had enough. They don’t want to give any more. And sometimes they feel bad. By doing it on one day, you see, people don’t hesitate to give. And lots of people give.

Sylvain: Yeah. Our record, if I remember correctly, the year we raised the most money, it was $18,000.