Upcoming Caterings!

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to let you know about some upcoming caterings that the Midnight Kitchen will be doing. We cater in order to provide food to political and community-based events that are in keeping with our political mandate. Our aim in providing food to these events is to show solidarity with and provide material support to the initiatives behind them.

In the next two weeks we will be catering for 2 events that are a part of Indigenous Sovereignty Week (ISW). The first is "A Cross Cultural Training: What you need to know when working with First Nations Communities" on the 25th as well as the Anti-colonial thanksgiving organized largely by the Frigo Vert which will take place on October 29th. We will also be making food for a panel entitled "Beyond Prisons, Toward Community Strategies: Supporting work within and against prisons" organized by the Prisoner Correspondence Project. There are details regading ISW and the Prisoner Correspondence Project below.

We will be cooking for the Prisoner Correspondence Project event on the morning of October 24th. Feel Free to stop by the kitchen and help out. If you are thinking of stopping by please email midnightkitchencollective@gmail.com to give us a heads up. Also, feel free to email with any questions regarding the caterings or the groups. We'll post the times we'll be cooking for the other events as soon as possible.

Prisoner Correspondence Project

The Prisoner Correspondence Project is a collectively-run initiative based out of Montreal, Quebec. It coordinates a direct-correspondence program for gay, lesbian, transsexual, transgender, gendervariant, two-spirit, intersex, bisexual and queer inmates in Canada and the United States, linking these inmates with people a part of these same communities outside of prison. In addition, it coordinates a resource library of information regarding harm reduction practice (safer sex, safer drug-use, clean needle care), HIV and HEPC prevention, homophobia, transphobia, coming out, etc. The project also aims to make prisoner justice and prisoner solidarity a priority within queer movements on the outside through events like film screenings, workshops, and panel discussions which touch on the broader issues relating to criminalization and incarceration of queers and transfolk.

The Prisoner Correspondence Project, Action Santé Travesti(e)s et Transsexuel(le)s du Québec (ASTTeQ), and the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy present:*Beyond Prisons, Toward Community Strategies: Supporting work within and against prisons*Saturday October 24th from 4pm to 6pmat the Comité Social Centre-Sud at 1710 Beaudry (metro Beaudry)

***Featuring:
*Gisele Dias* - Prisoner HIV/AIDS Support Action Network (PASAN), Toronto
*Peter Collins* - HIV/AIDS activist and prisoner at Bath Institution, Ontario
*Amazon Contreraz* - jailhouse lawyer, trans activist and prisoner at Corcoran, California
*Sadie Ryanne* - DC Trans Coalition (DCTC), Washington DC
*Farah Abdill *- community organizer, Montreal

Beyond Prisons, Toward Community Strategies will be an afternoon of community organizations and individuals coming together to discuss the ways we can expand our existing models of support and service provision, as prisoners, exprisoners and allies, and work towards a broader movement to end our reliance on prisons.

The presenters–made up of prisoners, ex-prisoners, and allies–will introduce their current projects, which include gay and trans prisoner support, HIV prevention, advocacy for prisoner self-determination, and local initiatives to support folks inside prisons. How can we confront the violence of prison expansion, deepening rates of in-prison HIV transmission, medical negligence and isolation? Through these discussions, we hope to forge coalitions between different community groups and strengthen the day to day struggles both within and against prisons.

*****whisper translation, childcare, and metro/bus fare available • wheelchair accessibleFor directions, information about accessibilty, or if there are other ways we can support your attendance, please contact us at info@prisonercorrespondenceproject.com * 514-848-2424 x 7431 * www.prisonercorrespondenceproject.com


Indigenous Sovereignty Week (ISW)

Indigenous Sovereignty Week (ISW) Montreal is part of a cross-Canada week of educational and awareness-raising events from October 25-31. The purpose of ISW is to build local relationships between groups and individuals, disseminate ideas of Indigenism, and generally contribute to building a cross-Canada movement for Indigenous rights, self-determination, and justice that is led by Indigenous communities but with a broad base of informed support. ISW is a project of the Defenders of the Land, a network of Indigenous communities and activists in land struggle across Canada, including Elders and youth, women and men. Defenders of the Land was founded at a historic meeting in Winnipeg from November 12-14 2008. The Defenders of the Land Basis of Unity is linked here: http://www.defendersoftheland.org/about

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 7pm

Cross Cultural Training: What you need to know when working with First Nations Communities at Saint Columba House, 2365 Grand Trunk (métro Charlevoix)Facilitated by Chad Katsenhake:ron Diabo, Mohawk of Kahnawake

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 6pm

Le Frigo Vert's 6th Annual Anti-Colonial Thanksgivingat the Native Friendship Center, Montreal, 2001 St. Laurent Blvd. (Metro St. Laurent)Films, Speakers & Feast!Free: Event, Food and Childcare. Wheelchair Accessible Space.Presentations:- Tracey Deer will present her film; Club Native, where she reveals the divisive legacy of more than a hundred years of discriminatory and sexist government policy and reveals the lingering “blood quantum” ideals, snobby attitudes and outright racism that threaten to destroy the fabric of her community. There will be time for discussion and questions after the film is screened.- Billie Pierre will give an update on Indigenous organizing against the Winter 2010 Olympics in BC.- Karl will talk briefly about medical apartheid and the politics of the H1N1epidemic on how this will effect low-income communities.- A member from Missing Justice will speak about their group. Missing Justice is an action-based grassroots solidarity collective based in Montreal that works to eliminate violence and discrimination against Indigenous women living in Quebec through popular education events, political demonstrations, and a variety of awareness campaigns.

First Outreach Meeting Fall 2009

Hey everyone!
The first outreach meeting of the year will be at 7pm on Wednesday, October 7 in the Midnight Kitchen office. Our office is located on the 4th floor of the Shatner(SSMU) building on McTavish, next to the clubs lounge. There will be snacks. Hope to see you there!

We're Back - Fall '09!

Hey everyone!

The Midnight Kitchen is back and has been serving food since the first day of classes! We are still usually serving at room 302 of Shatner at 12:30pm every weekday though we serve in the basement of Shatner (SSMU building) on Fridays. We are also serving at the Farmer's Market occasionally this semester, at car free day, and sometimes just outside the Shatner building. If in doubt, stop by the 3rd floor of Shatner and there will be a sign.

We are always looking for new volunteers and collective members. If you are interested we have volunteer sign up sheets available outside of the kitchen (to the right of Shatner 302) or you can email: midnightkitchencollective@gmail.com. Also, feel free to just drop by the kitchen and try it out. We cook every weekday from 9am to 12:30pm. Then we serve and clean up from 12:30 pm to 2:30pm. Basically, please stop by any time between 9am and 2:30pm to check it out or ask questions. We'd love to have you. 

If you are interested in being part of the decision making at MK please ask about joining the collective or one of the committees. We operate using consensus decision making (we can explain that if you are interested!) and non-hierarchically (everyone has equal say and responsibility. There is no single person "in charge" or president of this group.) We also have outreach and finance committees that focus more specifically on these issues. Please stop by the kitchen or email us if you are interested in joining!

We are also working on setting up a series of workshops this year. We'll keep you posted. Stay tuned!

*come help cook for this year’s anarchist bookfair!*

the bookfair takes place saturday, may 16th and sunday, may 17th. we’re going to provide food for all the volunteers and everyone in attendance, which usually works out to a couple of thousand people! so we need help baking vegepate, wrapping sandwiches, stirring cake batter, etc. and also serving at the bookfair on the weekend.

please come.

write back to this address (midnightkitchencollective@gmail.com) or oliver (hmfugler@gmail.com) and let us know if you can make any of the following shifts:


*thursday, may 14 (midnight kitchen, 3600 mctavish, just east of peel, above sherbrooke, 3rd floor )*

10am-12pm

12-2pm

2-4pm

4-6pm

6-9pm

*friday, may 15 (midnight kitchen, 3600 mctavish, just east of peel, above sherbrooke, 3rd floor)*

10-12am

12-2pm

2-4pm

4-6pm

6-9pm

*saturday, may 16 (ceda, 2515 delisle, near lionel-groulx metro - bookfair location)*

7-9am

9-11am

11am-1pm

1-3pm

3-6/7pm

*sunday, may 17 (ceda, 2515 delisle, near lionel-groulx metro - bookfair location)*

10am-12pm

12-2pm

2-4pm

4-6pm

Job offer : Part-time (approx. 15-20 hrs/wk), Stipended summer position!

The Midnight Kitchen, a not-for-profit food service organization, is offering several stipended summer positions. We are a volunteer- and worker-run consensus-based organization and applicants must be willing to work within a collective structure.

Midnight Kitchen ceases our regular servings during the summer months, so the work done by the summer collective and stipend positions consists of tasks that the collective does not accomplish during the year, when daily servings are a priority.

Individuals hired on the stipends will: participate in our visioning session on May 4^th, work together to take care of summer administrative tasks, work with the collective to bottomline summer servings, and complete projects and research which will benefit Midnight Kitchen (specific topics for this summer will be determined in early May, in collaboration with the collective, see below for list of potential tasks). The stipend positions will remain accountable to the Midnight Kitchen collective through a) the preparation and circulation to the collective of bi-weekly summer activities updates, and b) the preparation of a comprehensive final report, to be presented to the collective in early September 2009. In addition to these tasks, we also hope that summer stipend applicants will propose their own ideas, outlining other summer projects which would be of use to Midnight Kitchen. Please describe any such proposed ideas in your cover letter.

Potential summer tasks include: producing a comprehensive report detailing possibilities for Midnight Kitchen’s legal incorporation; researching potentials for additional food donation providers and bulk food suppliers; preparing and facilitating a food politics workshop for Radical Frosh 2009; planning and preparation for a Midnight Kitchen publicity campaign to be launched in Fall 2009; completing research on improving serving capacity and kitchen efficiency; building a bike trailer; designing permanent posters on Midnight Kitchen’s political vision and organizational structure for placement in our serving space; grant-writing; and research on other possible choices for the Midnight Kitchen such as buying a car. As noted above, we welcome applicants’ own suggestions for additional summer tasks.

Requirements include:
-Self-motivated/self-directed.
-Strong organizational skills.
-Ability to communicate and work closely with other Midnight Kitchen summer stipend positions, and with the Midnight Kitchen summer collective.
-An aptitude for applying new skills
-Dedication to or involvement in social justice causes
-Ability to work in English (functionality in French a plus)

Assets:
-Knowledge of Midnight Kitchen’s organizational structure and daily functioning

-Knowledge of food politics
-Experience with vegan and/or vegetarian cooking
-Knowledge of consensus-based decision making processes
-Experience with research and/or grant-writing

Remuneration: Remuneration shall be discussed at time of interview and shall be determined according to length of position offered. The total amount allotted for ALL Summer 2009 stipends is $6,020.00; each individual stipend will be drawn from this total.

The deadline for applications is Thursday, 23 April 2009. Please indicate in your cover letter whether you would like to be considered for: a four-month full summer position, a two-month (May/June OR July/August) summer position, or a position of either length. Members of traditionally-marginalized communities are strongly encouraged to apply.

Please send CVs and cover letters via e-mail: mk.hiring.committee@gmail.com

Only applicants accepted for interviews will be contacted. Position to start the day of the summer visioning session: May 4, 2009.

Please contact us for more information and any needed clarification.

Volunteer Appreciation Dinner!

Since we love volunteers so much and since they are what makes Midnight Kitchen happen everyday we like to have a wonderful fancy dinner with everyone at the end of each semester to say thanks, you're awesome! It's going to be this Friday April 3 in Shatner B29 (the room across from where we serve on Friday's) at about 7. It will be vegan and with wine!! Anyone is welcome to come help us cook that afternoon, but the collective bottomlines the dinner so volunteers just get to relax, eat and by merry. So if you've volunteered with anything this semester at MK come and get appreciated on Friday with us......yeeehaw!

We need volunteers!

MK volunteers are the backbone of our organization. Volunteers are encouraged to get involved to whatever degree they desire. If you are interested in doing regular shifts, stop by the kitchen or a serving (Shatner 304) and pick-up a form. Also, feel welcome to just drop by and help out whenever. We are in the kitchen weekdays from 9am-3pm.