North York Harvest Food Bank’s partnership with the Metcalf Foundation has been an essential ingredient in developing our community wealth building vision and model. For more than a decade, we have worked together to share expertise, partnerships, and resources to test ideas and build models that leverage our neighbourhood assets to advance our community’s economic dignity.
Initial funding from Metcalf in 2010 enabled NYHFB to explore how a ‘community food hub’ model could offer longer-term solutions to hunger and poverty. Metcalf helped us test and expand our ‘Leadership in Logistics’ forklift training, resulting in a career pathway at Canadian Tire, where successful graduates access full-time employment with benefits. In 2020, as the catalytic funder of FoodReach, Metcalf supported its transition to NYHFB, providing a 4-year grant that embedded the model into our operations, underpinning our community wealth building strategy.
Together, with partners like Metcalf, we have advanced a vision that moves beyond charity toward economic security, dignity, and opportunity.
To learn more about our collaboration: