Eat and Play Healthy: Growing Corporate Responsibility in Montréal

By Scientific Games

Published July 15, 2025

Sustainability goes beyond operational processes, especially on Scientific Games’ Montréal campus, where VP, Canada Marc-Andre Doyon and his team partnered with a local nonprofit organization to build and operate an urban farm on the company’s land, benefiting the local community and the environment.

In 2022, they developed a partnership with La Cuisine Collective Hochelaga-Maisonneuve to support Montréal’s citywide greening initiatives. The CCHM is a local organization whose mission is to promote the right to healthy food and healthy eating through a circular, community economy.

With the cost of produce rising in recent years, the CCHM’s leaders determined that growing their own fruits and vegetables would allow them to serve the largest number of people in the Montréal community.

“At the same time, Scientific Games was exploring the idea of creating an urban farm on a large plot of arable land behind our lottery instant game production facility,” says Doyon. “We wanted to join the City of Montréal’s green initiatives and find a unique way to give back to the local community because multiple generations of our workforce live here.”

A fixture in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighborhood of east Montréal for decades, Scientific Games has supplied the Canadian provincial lotteries and several international lotteries with instant scratch games for more than 50 years.

With efforts led by Doyon, the company donated use of its land, valued at approximately CAD 1 million, to the CCHM through a renewable, five-year lease for $1. The company also provided fencing around the urban farm and funding for water and electricity.

Scientific Games employees donate their time and energy to planting, harvesting and delivering produce from the farm to more than 40 local collective kitchens and other organizations.

“After creative brainstorming sessions, we named our farm Manger et jouer sainement, which means Eat and Play Healthy. The name uniquely ties together Scientific Games’ continued commitment to our communities, environmental sustainability and responsible gaming,” explains Doyon.

The CCHM and Scientific Games volunteers planted a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, including kale, squash, apples, pears, blueberries and raspberries. In 2023, its first full growing year, the farm produced approximately 10 tons of fruits and vegetables. The produce helped provide 150,000 meals and fill more than 2,600 food baskets for people in the local community.

Scientific Games also partnered with Alvéole, which provides urban beekeeping services, to build and maintain a beehive on the farm. The hive produces raw honey, which the CCHM distributes to the community, and provides a habitat for essential pollinators.

“Our partnership with the CCHM doesn’t just produce food; it also creates a space for community programs. We host visits from local schools, and the CCHM runs a social integration program for adults with intellectual disabilities who can come to our farm and learn about food production. The Scientific Games campus is located close to the metro line, making it a perfect location for their programs,” says Doyon.

In October 2023, a greenhouse was constructed on the farm. The new greenhouse extended the growing season by several months, allowing tomatoes and other crops that require a controlled climate to thrive. It also enables the farm to grow crop starters on-site, creating an independent agricultural ecosystem.

“We are currently exploring a method of pumping heat from our instant game production presses to keep the greenhouse warm during the winter months, reducing our energy footprint,” shares Doyon.

In 2024, Scientific Games celebrated the inauguration of Manger et jouer sainement. Building upon its initial gift of land, soil, and fencing, the farm now includes a greenhouse and beehives, and the company contributed financially to the inauguration event attended by dignitaries and many from the local community.

The farm produced an estimated 15 tons of fruits and vegetables in 2024, providing 150,000 meals and filling more than 2,600 food baskets distributed to the most vulnerable residents of the East End community of Montreal. With a surplus of fruits and vegetables for the first time, the CCHM sent the surplus produce to collective kitchens in other parts of the Montréal metropolitan area, giving more people access to healthy, fresh fruits and vegetables.

For Doyon and team’s efforts with Manger et jouer sainement, in 2024 Scientific Games was recognized with an international Communitas Award for Community Partnership.

In 2025, Scientific Games Montreal participated in Défi Pissenlits (The Dandelion Challenge), a movement that helps raise awareness about the importance of pollinator insects. Each spring, Canadian cities and citizens are invited to delay mowing their lawns to offer nectar and pollen to the bees and other pollinators thanks to the dandelions naturally present.

“The farm demonstrates Scientific Games’ commitment to environmental sustainability, and through our partnership with the CCHM, we are actively promoting healthy eating in our local community while enriching the local ecosystem,” says Doyon.

Proud of the produce and community spirit that has grown on the campus he manages, Doyon shared a collection of 2025 photos as Scientific Games employees and the CCHM await the next harvest of crops from Manger et jouer sainement to help feed the community.

“We see our urban farm as a project undertaken for the future, positively impacting our community with tangible help for those who need it most. Not only providing healthy food but also opportunities for learning and growth. We hope that we can inspire other organizations to follow suit, creating a social economy movement that will be a lasting legacy for the next generation,” says Doyon.

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