Launched in April 2021, the Parc-Ex Curry Collective (PECC) is a mutual aid initiative that provides catering and food distribution services in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This community-led project provides a means of financial support for asylum-seekers and recently immigrated women in the Parc-Extension neighborhood by hiring them as the main chefs. You can also support vulnerable families in the neighborhood by purchasing “community meals” and for this option, the Curry Collective will deliver to these families for free!
Learn more about our wonderful chefs here!
PECC was initially supported by Concordia University’s Office of Community Engagement through the Digital Divides (DD) project. The initiative started during the Covid-19 pandemic in an effort to combat some of the systemic inequalities that were further exposed during that time. PECC provides financial support for women who face employment barriers due to their precarious immigration status and doubles as a catering service to address isolation and food insecurity. It was one of many mutual aid initiatives that arose during the pandemic and continues to be an evolving grassroots solution to systemic problems, empowering residents and promoting their integration.
Meet the team
Leonora Indira King
Founder, Parc-Ex Curry CollectiveLeonora Indira King is the founder and coordinator of the Parc-Ex Curry Collective. She is also a community worker for Afrique au Féminin where she organizes informational workshops and intercultural outings for newcomer women. Leonora obtained her PhD from McGill University’s Department of Psychiatry and then went on to complete two post-doctoral degrees where she respectively facilitated arts-based interventions for newly-arrived asylum seekers and examined the experience of Black youth in the Quebec school system. Essentially, Leonora is passionate about migrant justice, bringing people together and strengthening marginalized communities.
Naveen Selvakularaja
Parc-Ex Curry Collective DriverNaveen is of Sri Lankan origin, but was born and raised in Chennai, India. He has been a Parc-Ex resident for 20 years. He is an Uber driver by day and at night, he is a trainer of both Kalaripayattu, an ancient martial art from Kerala as well as Bharatanatyam, a form of Indian classical dance. Naveen was Parc-Ex Curry Collective’s driver back when the initiative was just getting started and supported the Collective through its trial and errors. He is now coming back to see it through and help bring the Curry Collective to the next level.
Simone Chen
Originally from Los Angeles, Simone has been living in Montreal since 2015, where he completed a BA at the McGill School of Environment. She seeks to cultivate participative urban agriculture and arboriculture interventions, and to galvanize the capacity of local communities to produce and access food resources through ecological and just practices. She works in Parc-Extension at the solidarity cooperative La Place Commune, where she coordinates a neighborhood fruit harvesting project. She believes that a holistic approach to building resilient local food systems necessitates critical consideration of systemic barriers that exclude the most vulnerable populations from access to land, housing and food. She believes in the power of grassroots actions to construct solidarity and ecological alternatives, with a general intention of the eventual abolition of those structures that reproduce systems of economic precarity and social division.
Jacob Wade-Vallance
Social media content creator for Parc-Ex Curry CollectiveJacob, originally from Vancouver, BC, has been living in Montreal since 2021. His passion lies at the intersection of sociology and the environment. He will graduate from Concordia University with a major in Sociology as well as a minor from the Loyola College for Sustainability and Diversity. Jacob is enthusiastic about working with and in communities to promote cooperative practices and sustainability and believes that grassroots organizations such as the Curry Collective are an integral part of the social and economic well-being of a community. Jacob enjoys making delicious dinners with his friends in his free time and is an avid live music fan!
Our volunteer drivers
Stefie Shock
Parc-Ex Curry Collective Volunteer DriverStefie is a volunteer Parc-Ex Curry Collective driver