This year because of you amazing things happened! You made a huge impact in the lives of people in your community that didn’t have enough food to eat! Your donations, food drives, volunteering and support provided an incredible amount of food to people in Toronto! Thank you!
Cheers to another amazing year and onto the next!
Some kids love it. Some kids hate it. But it is on the way! The kids are about to go back to school for another year of learning, friendship and fun.
Personally, I loved back to school as a kid. Every year at the end of summer, I got to go to the mall with my mom to buy new clothes and supplies. We’d usually make a day of it and grab some pizza for lunch.
I met Jenna earlier this summer. She told me how she’s really excited to start grade four. Her favourite classes are science and gym class. “I can’t wait to see my friends again and tell them about all the things I did this summer!”
Her mother Trish, on the other hand, is not as excited. Her hours have been cut at work again and she is having trouble paying for Jenna’s school supplies. “Rent is so expensive – I really can’t afford to pay for extra things Jenna needs.”
Trish isn’t the only one feeling the pinch in September. Many clients that come into the food bank struggle with daily expenses. And food is often the most flexible thing in the budget. Unhealthy food tends to be a lot cheaper than fresh foods so those items tend to make it into children’s lunches.
“I always felt terrible when I couldn’t put fresh fruit or vegetables in her lunches – but those things cost so much lately.”
I’ve seen it myself when buying my groceries. Fresh produce prices have been skyrocketing; sometimes it is just easier to get the cheaper items while sacrificing nutrition.
Even though Jenna is still young, she can still tell when there isn’t enough food for a healthy lunch. “Once in a while I get two oranges in my lunch. Those are my favourite! Last year I didn’t get oranges much. Sometimes I didn’t get much to eat at all.”
This year Trish turned to the food bank, “I am always so grateful after going to the food bank. I come home with healthy items for Jenna and myself. Things like bread, cheese and meat so I can make her sandwiches for lunch. And there are even eggs so she can have scrambled eggs in the morning – though I prefer mine sunny side up.”
I’m relieved know that families in Toronto have access to these food banks. No child should go to school hungry.
Luckily, your support of North York Harvest helps us ensure that Trish can fill Jenna’s lunch bag with healthy foods each day. She can also send Jenna off to school having had a healthy breakfast so she can concentrate on her studies.
Help start the school year off right for kids just like Jenna! Donate today to ensure no kid in your community goes without a healthy lunch.
With your support, we serve over 15,000 people that are hungry each month! As you can imagine, it takes A LOT of food to be able to provide meals for our neighbours in need.
Through generous donations of individual and corporate donors, we receive 100,000’s of pounds of food. But all of this food isn’t ready to go out to the food banks – it must be sorted for quality first.
I caught up with Kadian Clarke, a staff member at North York Harvest – she works with groups of volunteers to sort through thousands of pounds of food. Since January, she’s trained and sorted with over 1,000 people including employee groups, schools, sports teams as well as families.
“My favourite part of the job is teaching people about the foods in the food bank as well as building awareness of hunger in our city.”
It turns out in order to sort all of this food; there are many rules. The reason for this is so we can provide the best possible food to people in your community. That means we can’t accept damaged, unlabeled, expired or half-eaten foods (yes, all of these items come into the warehouse on a regular basis and must be sorted before they reach the food bank).
“There are 23 categories of food that go out to agencies.” Kadian tells me as she sets up the sort room for her next group. These categories include baby food, rice, nutritional supplements, snacks and proteins – others in higher demand than others. “The important part of sorting them into these categories is that we can better serve the clients with food they need. This way agencies don’t get a box of random items ranging from tuna to pudding cups when what they really needed was canned beans.”
We are extremely thankful for all of the donations that we receive, but some of them can be completely strange. I asked some of the staff what items they’ve seen through the years that made them raise an eyebrow.
We definitely see the wacky and the weird in our bins on a regular basis for example:
Thankfully, most donations received are exactly what our clients are looking for in a food hamper: items like canned fish, canned tomatoes, beans, rice and baby food. It’s important that we take the time to sort and categorize these items. Unfortunately sorting through unwanted items is a lot of extra work. And it takes valuable time and money to dispose of anything that is damaged or expired.
Volunteers come in to sort with their coworkers or friends and end the session knowing more about hunger in the city and why their help is so essential. The thing that Kadian sees volunteers take away from the food sorting experience is a sense of accomplishment within the community. “After each sort session, we share how many pounds of food were sorted and how many families they are helping. This way the volunteers get to see their hard work pay off first hand. The groups feel great about being able to make a difference.” And make a difference they do.
Join us as we strive for a Hunger Free Toronto!
There are many options to get involved and help our neighbours that are hungry! Together we can provide healthy food for people in our community.
There are many different ways to run a Food and Funds Drive – from bake sales, to jeans day to games at a fair. It’s easy and a fun way to team build with your family, friends or coworkers!
Just contact Leslie or Click Here to get started.
Get more great tips on how to Amp Up Your Food and Funds Drive!
Getting together for an event is so much fun!
We’re in your community at BBQ’s, concerts, festivals and more. Come and see us soon!
There are so many great volunteer opportunities to help people meet their food needs! You could volunteer in the food bank serving clients, help out in the warehouse, hop on the truck to deliver food, join us at events and much more. Check out our volunteer opportunities.
Your support directly impacts the lives of thousands of adults, seniors and children in our city and ensures that our neighbours have enough to eat. DONATE TODAY!
You can pick up some extra items and drop them off at your local grocery store or fire hall. Or you can make a donation right to the warehouse (including fresh items) at 116 Industry Street. Not sure what to donate? Check out our list of top suggested food items.
Let’s get together on social media! We’d love to hear from you on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram or LinkedIn!
Whichever way you choose to get involved – we are happy to have you! Thank you so much!
People may not think of things like paying electrical bills, storing groceries and supplies or even having a functional bathroom when thinking of a food bank. But these are problems are very real for food banks, youth shelters, soup kitchens and more. Lack of space is a serious issue that charities – especially small ones – face.
Keep up to date with what’s going on in your community! Sign up for the E-Newsletter!
Guest blog by Shirah Stern, Development Associate Corporate Giving
Did you know that there are free toy lending libraries in North York? Or literacy programs to prepare children for school? I sure didn’t before I went to visit Weston Area Emergency Services (WAES). WAES is a food bank that falls under the NYH umbrella offering emergency food hampers to people in need. It was there I met volunteer Marlene Jones. And she sure taught me a lot about community services I didn’t even know existed!
Marlene has been volunteering with WAES for almost a year now. After retiring, Marlene wanted to give back because she personally felt grateful for the education and career that she has had in her life. Her passion for health and nutrition naturally led her to a volunteer program that helps people in her neighbourhood access the food they need. “Having access to good food is so important for family health,” she told me. “It’s also important that members of our communities are aware of programs to support people regardless of their personal income or background. Especially if they have kids.”
With four young children, I often wonder why kids don’t come with a manual. We all want to be the best parent that we can and these free resources are a huge helping hand for many that don’t have a ready support network.
As a retired public health nurse, Marlene informs clients of nearby programs that they didn’t know they had access to. These range from parenting programs and educational tutoring to newcomer workshops and recreational activities. And these are available for anyone in the city. Because Marlene shares her knowledge, these families know where they can go to make their lives just a little bit easier.
Marlene shared the joy she feels being able to assistant clients with their food needs and help them get other supports they need. Young, single mothers come to the food bank to put food in their bellies, and walk out with information about summer camp their children can attend. A man struggling with being laid off from work will come in to get extra items for dinner and leave with the number of a service to help him update his resume. There are so many other examples of people in your neighbourhood that benefit from these programs.
Referral services and connections are part of what makes food banks so important to our community. I have worked at NYH for many years and I didn’t even know that some of these programs were available (toy lending library??!!). And working in the social service sector, if I wasn’t aware, I can imagine many other families in our city that could really use these services aren’t aware of them either. Sharing is caring.
I really admire the generosity and thoughtfulness of Marlene and other volunteers at WAES – they truly demonstrate the value of volunteering and helping others in the community. “It takes a village to raise a child,” share Marlene. And she enjoys being a part of it.
Families in our city are accessing programs that are helpful because of connections made in the food bank. It is because of you that we are able to make connections like this happen. Thank you for being part of our village.
Each day many volunteers put their time and heart into making a difference in the community through volunteering. If you are interested in volunteering with us please contact us – we’d love to have you join the team!
Want to know more about free programs offered in the city? Call Toronto Health Connections at 416-338-7600 or 211 to access community resources for anyone.
North York Harvest provides food for 47 agencies throughout Toronto. Those agencies serve over 13,000 people each month – that’s a lot of food! Ever wonder where all the generous donations of food is stored before it makes it into these programs? Well today I’m going to show you!
I went live on Facebook to show off our vast 9,000 square foot warehouse to talk to our amazing warehouse staff about the work that goes into delivering this food to your community…. come join me on the tour…
Want to see it for yourself?? Let us know! We’d love to show you!
For more Facebook fun – like our page!
Want to help your neighbours get the food they need? Contribute to our Build a Hamper campaign so we can ensure we stock the warehouse with great food!
Keep in Touch! Join our Enews
We had an amazing time this year with our corporate sort groups and there is still more to come! Check out this great video we made of the summer sort teams (so far…)
Engage your employees, reach out to your community of customers and add value to your philanthropy. Together we can make sure that no one in Toronto has to go without enough food to feed their families.
Find out more here or contact Kadian at 416-635-7771 ex 28 // kadian@northyorkharvest.com