Many were taken aback when, on the 1st of October, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Board of Directors issued a notice announcing the reorganisation of the Midnight Kitchen, a program that offers free meals to McGill students once or twice a week. All Midnight Kitchen staff were dismissed, and the SSMU announced the development of a new service under a new position: the Food Services and Hospitality Manager.
The new program would aim to provide a daily lunch service, no longer exclusively serving vegan food. Some have voiced concerns as to the feasibility of this project, and questioned what it could signify for the Midnight Kitchen and other similar organisations’ governance structures and mandates. The conflict appears to be the result of a long phase of disorganisation in both the Midnight Kitchen and the SSMU following the COVID-19 pandemic, which the Board now seeks to correct.
The Board of Directors justified its decision by arguing that the Midnight Kitchen had been using its funds inefficiently, citing that it had only allocated 7.41% of its 2024-2025 budget to purchasing food. In response, the Save MK Coalition was formed, criticising the SSMU for publishing the budget sheets without context, which they claimed depicted the Midnight Kitchen unfairly. The Coalition emphasised that food expenditures were low because the Midnight Kitchen relied mostly on donations and made efficient use of affordable vegan ingredients. In an interview, the SSMU President Dymetri Taylor recognised that the statement made by the Board following the decision was flawed, but emphasised that Midnight Kitchen had a mandate to provide five services a week, and it should have spent more of its budget on food with the donations being an additional surplus: “If they’re getting more food without additional cost to students that’s great, but then where is it?”
An anonymous former Midnight Kitchen employee explained that the number of meals provided had actually grown over the past years after a slowdown in operations during the COVID-19 pandemic: “In 2023-2024 we were serving around 150 meals once a week, which increased to 150-200 meals once or twice a week, totalling 300-400. By the end of 2024-2025 we were regularly doing 250+ meals twice a week, for a total of 500,” they shared, “ We weren’t able to serve every day, but we were actively increasing the number of meals”.
The Save MK Coalition also pointed to a range of facility-related difficulties that have limited the number of meals the Midnight Kitchen can prepare and distribute. The former employee noted that working with the SSMU had been difficult. They highlighted a lack of clarity in what the Midnight Kitchen could change, as the facilities they used did not belong to them. Dymetri Taylor argued that this was disingenuous, given that the Midnight Kitchen had previously made significant modifications, with a part of its budget dedicated to buying and maintaining equipment.
Communications with the SSMU reportedly became strained after the resignation of Vice President (VP) Student Life Chloé Muñoz in October 2024, despite responsibilities being transferred to the Director of Clubs and Services. In response, President Taylor stated that the Midnight Kitchen had also been unresponsive in working with the SSMU to address its concerns. Over the years, lapses in communication from both parties appear to have resulted in mutual discontent and frustration.
Another important concern raised is a lack of transparency regarding the path forward. The SSMU has posted a job opening for the future Food Services and Hospitality Manager. The tasks listed would require an extensive and demanding skill set, prompting questions as to whether they could efficiently be fulfilled by a single person. Dymetri Taylor clarified that these tasks were intended to be delegated to employees and volunteers once the reorganised Midnight Kitchen steps into action.
At the root of these issues appears conflict over the Midnight Kitchen’s mandate and role in the communities of McGill and broader Montreal. The organisation defined itself as “non-hierarchical, consensus-based, intersectional, and anti-oppressive”. The SSMU’s decision to shift responsibilities to a single Food Services and Hospitality Manager seems to indicate a change towards a more conventional, corporate top-down structure. Dymetri Taylor defended the SSMU’s position stating that “the students never voted on the Midnight Kitchen’s mandate, what they voted on was a fee which entailed five servings per week,” adding, “a manager is being put in to ensure longevity and oversight, […] any person that’s hired will be supportive of students. The manager is supposed to be there to mentor the students and provide the background to ensure they can still go forward to do what they’re doing.”
The reorganisation of the Midnight Kitchen aims to shift it away from its community-focused, non-hierarchical, and politically engaged mandate, to one solely focused on providing more meals. Yet the dispute over the Midnight Kitchen’s organisation and finances reflects deeper disagreement over governance, values, the autonomy of SSMU student services and the transparency of SSMU decision-making.
