Author Archives: Lauren Skippen

  1. Catelli Pasta, Top Chefs & Feeding Hope

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    Whether you’re an athlete trying to fuel up before the big event, or a family settling in for a good meal, more often than not pasta is a very welcome addition to any dinner table. I know for me, nothing beats cooking up a fresh lasagna with a group of friends, or enjoying warm bowl of spaghetti after a long day. That’s why I was so excited to find out that Catelli Pasta was spearheading a project that would allow pasta lovers like me to expand their cooking horizons with some great new recipes, and support their local food bank at the same time.

    The campaign is called Help Us Feed the Hope, and its working to help pasta fans make a difference through their everyday shopping and cooking. Since April, Catelli has been running a coast-to-coast in-store promotion where they donate a serving of pasta to food banks nationally for every box of pasta purchased. “Summer is the slowest donation time for food banks, so this initiative helps the hungry when they need it most”, said Sandra Kim, Director of Marketing for Catelli. “Catelli is pleased to have the opportunity to help Canada’s food banks and make it easier than ever for Canadians across the country to join in the fight against hunger.”

    Feed the Hope also centres around a free on-line cookbook named the“Catelli Pasta Boost”. To create the cookbook Catelli teamed up a group of top chefs as well as some of Canada’s Pan Am Games athletes to create recipes that are both delicious, healthy and pack an energy boost. Each time you share the cookbook over Facebook, Catelli will donate one serving of pasta to a local food bank. Incredibly, just a few months into the campaign, Catelli has nearly hit its goal of 1 million servings donated!

    We at the North York Harvest got to see the impact of this amazing project first hand yesterday when chef Daniel Schick, executive chef at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto and cook book contributor, stopped by to donate of 13 skids of Pasta on behalf of Catelli. This donation will go a long way towards feeding our neighbours in need, especially during our slower summer months.

    Beside the fact that it helped to raise so many meals for our community, the cookbook is a real treat for any adventurous food lover. Recipes for Whole Wheat Linguini with Chicken Confit and Lemon Oil, Tortoglioni with Middle Eastern Chicken, and Wild Salmon Carbonara immediately got my mouth watering. But hey, don’t take my word for, check it out for yourself. It’s free and takes only a few seconds to access.

    Help a neighbour and need, and all I need to do is check out a great cook book? Seems like a no brainer right? Head on over to Catelli’s Facebook page and start making a difference today.

  2. Dave Matthews Rocks Out For North York Harvest

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    For me, summertime doesn’t get much better than spreading my blanket across a sunny patch of grass and lying down to watch some beautiful live music. If you agree that this sounds like an ideal night out, you might be interested to know that next month you can see a great rock band, and support a great food bank, all in one fantastic evening.

    On Tuesday, July 21st, Dave Matthews Band will be bringing their smooth sounds to the Molson Amphitheatre, and North York Harvest will be front and center at the event, mingling with the fans and collecting your food and fund donations.

    There are a few ways you can support NYHFB at the show:

    • Bring your food donations to the show and drop them in our bins outside the gates of the venue.
    • Once you’re inside, support North York Harvest by picking up a Dave Matthews Band Nalgene bottle for a $10 donation. All the proceeds will be donated to a local farm, who in turn will give an in kind donation of fresh and healthy food to NYHFB.
    • During the concert look for our staff and volunteers (we’ll make ourselves visible) and come on over for a chat! We’ll be handing out some great materials, as well as collecting your generous donations.

    The event is part of the Bama Green Project, a partnership between Dave Matthews and REVERB, which works to bring awareness to food security issues. For more information on this amazing project, check out this video.

    We hope you can make it out for what’s going to be a fantastic night. For information on tickets, please visit Dave Matthew’s website. To get involved as a volunteer, please email leslie@northyorkharvest.com.

  3. We’re having a BBQ!

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    As you may have heard, North York Harvest Food Bank has a new home. To celebrate we’ve decided to throw a community BBQ as a chance to show off our beautiful new space, as well as get to meet our neighbours.

    The BBQ will be an opportunity to enjoy some delicious food (thanks to our friends at Whole Foods), take part in fun activities, and mingle with folks from the neighbourhood. Bring the kids, the dog, the whole family!

    Please check out the flyer below for all the details, and then take 30 seconds to RSVP. We’ll be confirming more exciting details over the next few weeks, so stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter pages for all the details.

    Community BBQ (5)

  4. Food Banks Can’t Take A Summer Vacation

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    Toronto is a great place to spend the summer days. Trips to the island, ball games at the Rogers Centre, and bike rides through the park all help keep my days filled with fun and excitement. I am however, one of the lucky ones. For many people in this beautiful city, summer can be a season of stress and worry. The unfortunate reality is that hunger doesn’t take a summer vacation, and neither can food banks.

    If you live in Toronto you know that times are tough for many of your neighbours. Unemployment is high, and as the cost of living continues to sky-rocket, even those with full time jobs are struggling to makes ends meet. More people now depend on food banks than ever before, and during my time at North York Harvest Food Bank I’ve had the opportunity to meet with many of them, and hear their stories.

    A few weeks ago I spoke with Suzie Anderson, a client at North York Harvest Food Bank.  Suzie lives in the Lawrence Heights neighbourhood of Toronto, where she shares a government housing apartment with her mother and her 3 children. Right now she’s unemployed, and while she’s hopeful of finding a job soon, currently she depends on Ontario Works for all of her expenses. She budgets, saves and sacrifices, but after rent, utilities and her student loan, it’s become impossible for Suzie to work food for five people into an already stretched budget.

    “Things are tougher in the summer time” Suzie told me, “my kids are home from school and don’t have access to the school’s meal plan. I do my best to plan ahead, but things come up and there have been times where we’ve had to skip meals.”

    Suzie isn’t alone. This month alone over 13,000 of your fellow Torontonians will access our food banks. It’s a daunting number, and one made even harder considering that the summertime is the period when we see our lowest donation levels.

    That’s why we need you. This summer, even a small donation can have a dramatic impact on the lives of a neighbour. Let’s take a minute and look at the numbers.

    • Send a donation of $20, and we can feed 4 children at a youth shelter for a month.
    • Make a contribution of $30, and we can provide 3 children with lunch at day camp for all of July.
    • Give a gift of $50 and we can give 3 meals a day to a senior for the entirety of August.

    So before you get outside to enjoy the sunshine, take a moment to consider those who are in need. This is the time when our community needs us the most, and in turn it’s the time when your generosity is most required. Only you can keep our shelves stocked and our fridges full. Together lets make this a beautiful summer for everyone.

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  5. Our New Home

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    It’s been an exciting few months for the North York Harvest Food Bank. Our new Executive Director Ryan Noble joined the team in March, we’re currently tallying the numbers from our Spring Food Drive (more details coming soon), and over the next few weeks, we will begin the exciting process of moving into our new home.

    As of June 1st, NYHFB’s main office and warehouse will be located at 116 Industry Street in Toronto’s Mt. Dennis neighbourhood. You might be wondering why we’re looking to make such a big move? Well, the answer is that we’ve long outgrown our current space in Lawrence Heights. Our new, larger facility has more space and capacity, allowing us to accept and distribute a greater quantity and quality of your food donations to our community food spaces and member agencies. This means more healthy food for your neighbors in need. And don’t worry – just because we’re moving doesn’t mean we are changing our services.  We will still be providing food to all our agencies and clients in northern Toronto.

    A few highlights of the new space include:

    • A bigger and more organized volunteer food sorting area
    • Additional food racking to hold your generous food donations
    • 2 proper loading docks, greatly simplify our drop-offs and deliveries.
    • More space for forklifts, allowing for more efficient sorting and distribution.
    • A fridge triple the size our old one, and freezer double the size of our old one, allowing us to accept and distribute more of your fresh produce and food donations.

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    If you visited the Lawrence Heights location in the past probably noticed that we had a client serving food bank onsite. That service will not be moving over to the new office, but fear not, our clients now have access to the NYH – Mamma Caya Food Space located a short distance away.

    At the end of the day, we believe this move puts us in a place ensuring that your donations can go further and help more people. This is next step in a long term vision for a city where no one goes hungry.

    We look forward to creating memories with you at our new home, and want to start by inviting you to a Community BBQ on June 25th. We’ll be releasing details shortly, so stay tuned to our Event Calendar.

     

  6. Thank You For Supporting Our Spring Food Drives

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    If you follow North York Harvest’s website or social media accounts, you’ve probably noticed that, over the last few months, we’ve been engaging our community to raise food and fund donations for three major campaigns.

    The North York Harvest Spring Food Drive, Every Plate Full Food Drive, and the Greater Toronto Apartment Association Spring Hope Food Drive, are all designed to keep our shelves stocked throughout the summer. Its a time when your neighbours need extra support as our food supply usually gets critically low.

    Today we’re happy to announce that thanks to your donations and volunteer hours, we were able to raise an amazing $95,000 and 144,235 pounds of food across the three food drives! Your contributions will go a long way towards supporting your neighbours in need, and making sure that none of our clients go without this summer.

    We’d like to send a special thank you to our Spring Drive supporting sponsor Hain Celestial for making the campaign possible. We’re very lucky to partner with such an amazing organization.

    Thank you for your generosity and hard work. To continue to support your neighbours in need this summer, please donate today.

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  7. Three Meals a Day: Nourishing Youth

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    Ever wonder where your next meal was coming from? Or how you’d manage to afford groceries that week? For the youth in our food bank community, these are critical questions. Your support provides a nourishing response.

    Troy lives in a youth homeless shelter that North York Harvest Food Bank delivers food to each week. “Hunger is definitely a crisis. The case is there isn’t food to eat or there is. If there is food in the stomach, even if you don’t have love, you are warm.”

    With the most basic needs of food and shelter met, Troy can focus on taking advantage of the opportunities to change his life. Recently, he applied for an apprenticeship to become an arborist, something he has wanted to do for years, and says that in general things are looking better.

    Robin Eva's PlaceRobin echoes Troy’s sentiment. Also living in the shelter system, Robin has been through some tough times. “I ran away from my mom because she was abusive.” After several attempts, Robin has now found a safe, wheelchair accessible space where three meals are served each day.

     

    With your help, North York Harvest delivers food to youth shelters throughout northern Toronto, providing young people with access to nourishing meals so they can begin to imagine a future.

    In addition to delivering food, we also run programs that can help build skills for the future. This month, our Oriole Food Space begins a community kitchen prog
    ram in partnership with the shelter where Troy and Robin are staying.

    It will focus on cooking with affordable ingredients to make healthy, simple meals. From culinary skills to food safety, youth will be better prepared for when they leave the shelter. They will also learn that local food banks can be a support as they transition into building a new life on their own.

    Food is not only a basic human need, it is a building block for a healthier, better life. When you give to North York Harvest, you open up opportunities. As Troy says: “It is important everyone has sustenance in their life, otherwise you aren’t privileged enough to be healthy like everyone else.”

    Your gift to North York Harvest Food Bank today will provide food to the youth who need it, and open up opportunities for a brighter future.

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  8. Every Plate Full Food Drive

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    From May 2nd – 8th, North York Harvest Food Bank will be joining food banks across Canada for the Every Plate Full Food Drive.

    This Summer 918,724 Canadians will access food banks. It’s a staggering number, and unfortunately, due to lower donations throughout the summer months, many food banks will struggle to keep up with the demand.  This problem has sparked the Every Plate Full Food Drive, a campaign organized by Food Banks Canada, bringing food banks across the country together with the goal to fill the plates of every hungry Canadian this summer.

    We at the North York Harvest Food Bank are thrilled to be a part of this initiative, and we need your donations to help make this drive a success. Every $1 you donate to NYHFB’s Every Plate Full Drive will provide 3 meals for someone in need.

    This year we’ve set a big goal of 30,000 meals raised and we can’t get there without your help. Visit our Every Plate Full Drive page today to start a team, make a donation, or learn more about the campaign.