Media tries to portray Occupy Montreal's People Kitchen in a negative light.

From Nina at "La cuisine du peuple"of Occupy Montreal/Occupons Montreal. She is a friend of a friend and has been involved with the kitchen from the beginning. This is what she has to say:

There have been several articles circulating involving La Cuisine du Peuple that are incorrect, unfounded and nearing slanderous. Tailored by certain reporters to make Occupy Montreal look bad!

CTV: http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20111027/mtl_occupy_111027/20111027?hub=MontrealHome

Gazette: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Food+bank+donate+protest/5626070/story.html

www.montrealgazette.com/news/Your+Views+Food+Occupy+troops/5612035/story.html

The things in question:

1. It was stated that we are receiving and requesting food banks for food.

This is 100% untrue! We have never received food from a food bank or shelter, nor do we intend to ask them for help; we know they themselves are having a hard time meeting their own demands and needs.

Where this rumour was started from: During an interview with Remy a kitchen organizer from pre oct 15th meetings he stated that we are receiving a very small percentage of donations (5%-10%) from various food organizations and the rest of the food was donated by individuals

The gazette and CTV took it upon themselves to say that those food organizations mentioned were food banks or shelters, and then took it upon themselves to interview a food bank at random to interview them and print negative and irrelevant tings about our kitchen.

2. There are rumours spreading about spoilage of food from our kitchen.

This is partially true, however the reason (which are reasonable and outside our control) were neglected to be mentioned. This is also not acceptable and is in poor taste to the profession of journalism.

The facts:

1. We receive many kinds of food donations from thousands of different sources... often we receive perishables like fruits and vegetables that are past their prime, they spoil very quickly. I have also personally witnessed a donation of a box of green peppers that were so badly mouldy that we had to compost the entire contents of the box.

We would love to get in contact with a food bank or shelter where we can share our surplus, however we are currently understaffed and don't have the man power to go out seeking some to collaborate with, however if you are a food bank or shelter in need of our surplus food stuff feel free to contact myself Nina at 514-883-1969 or the Occupy Kitchen phone at 514-619-8107

2. We did have spoilage as  due to bad weather, we lost some bread that got wet because we are lacking a better structure that a tarp hung in some trees. I am currently trying to find Tempo tents or event tents (chapiteau) to use as a permanent kitchen structure, if you have one for sale for a decent price please contact me.

Its disgusting to see how quickly these two rumours and inaccuracies are spreading like wild fire to other media outlets, they all seem to piggy back off other article.

Thanks for your help, together we can all stand strong we are the 99% the media works for the 1%