Author Archives: Michelle Rowe-Jardine

  1. Annual food drive inspires community pride!

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    How a food drive became a source of community pride

    A mother, father and daughter kneel on the grass packing food donations into a bag

    What happens when you combine a DJ booth, a townhouse complex, and neighbours who are passionate about giving back?

    The LaRose townhouse complex has answered that it’s a much-anticipated neighbourhood party that collects food and funds for North York Harvest Food Bank!

    Matt Foran spearheaded this food drive starting in 2021, getting his family involved to make posters and encouraging his neighbours to join together to help people facing food insecurity.

    With the soaring cost of housing and food, “The food drive notion is very relatable because people recognize it’s tough for them too,” Matt says.

    Fighting food insecurity also runs in the family: His father started the Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank, and his cousins started a food bank out in Sudbury.

    Every year the neighbourhood comes together for the Community Giving Day, an event where folks can drop off donations, but also hang out and connect with their neighbours while Matt often DJs to really make it a party!

    “It’s become a source of community pride,” Matt says, “and it’s become something that people look forward to. When they see me walking my dog they ask ‘when it’s going to happen, what’s our goal?’”

    Each year they try to start with a goal of $3,500 but this year Matt said they had to be ambitious because of the growing need they are seeing in their community.

    This year the food and fund drive exceeded their target, bringing in $6,400 plus 465 lbs of food!

    The Community Giving Day has even spread beyond the LaRose townhouse, with donations coming in from all over the city.

    “it was amazing to see the list of donors and people I hadn’t met before, they heard about it through friends and neighbours. It’s wonderful it brings people together like this,” Matt says.

    Thank you to Matt and everyone at the LaRose townhouse complex, this generosity will directly support nearly 30,000 client visits across our network, and help individuals and families meet their food needs.

    Be a Harvest Hero

    Learn how you can get involved and make a difference as we work towards our vision of a community where all members are able to meet their food needs.

    Start your own food drive!

    OR

    Start a virtual food drive!

  2. Food banks can’t solve food insecurity

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    People aren’t just falling through the cracks, the ground is collapsing beneath their feet

    The cover of the 2024 Who's Hungry Report featuring an image of the CN tower, partly obfuscated by fog.

    In our Food for Thought series, individuals within North York Harvest Food Bank will share their experience in matters pertaining to food insecurity and poverty. This series will share ideas, perspectives, and lessons learned as we work toward our vision of a community where all members are able to meet their food needs.

    Written by Sarah Watson; Director of Community Engagement

    Each year at this time, North York Harvest Food Bank, in partnership with Daily Bread Food Bank, releases our annual Who’s Hungry Report. In our new 2024 report you will see that:

    • More than 1 in 10 Torontonians used a food bank last year
    • 9 in 10 food bank clients live in unaffordable housing,  with 20% of clients spending their entire income on rent
    • 49% of clients have at least one member of their household who is employed

    These numbers, while incredibly distressing, are very much in line with what we have seen for the last four years, and sadly will come as no surprise to many.  They are telling us that we are in the midst of a poverty and food insecurity crisis in our city, but after four years, they are also telling us something more.

    The spirit of food banks is neighbours helping neighbours and that is a beautiful thing.  But community care at this level is a clear sign of systems failure. Our support systems and our social safety net have been allowed to fray to such a level that people aren’t just falling through the cracks, the ground is collapsing beneath their feet.

    Food banks cannot fix this.  The supports we provide are critical, but on their own they are not a solution.

    A square text graphic that reads Who's Hungry Report 2024, and shows the median monthly income of food bank clients as $1,265 and that clients have a median of $7.78 per per day left over after paying rent and utilities.

    For years the Who’s Hungry Report has clearly shown that to solve this crisis what our community members need is affordable housing, access to decent work that pays a living wage, and social assistance rates that don’t leave them in legislated poverty.

    Until we see these things, the situation will not change.  

    North York Harvest and our member agencies need support in order to ensure that people have access to the food they need today. Thanks to you, we have been able to meet record levels of demand from our community this past year, and we are so thankful for your partnership.

    But we are also asking you to join us in the fight for long term solutions so that together we can build a city where all people are able to meet their food needs.

    To learn more about what we are seeing in food banks across the city, and how we can all work together for long term solutions, please read our report.  

  3. 10 years of family food drives

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    Passing the torch on the family food drive

    A teenage girl stands outside on a sunny day in front of a box full of bags of donated food. She holds a poster for her food drive which reads 'We Scare Hunger'

    Ten years ago, Berry Meyerowitz launched a community food drive with his family around Halloween with the tagline: We Scare Hunger.

    “My family and I are very fortunate. I’ve always wanted the kids to understand how lucky they are, and that we need to volunteer and help other people who are in need,” Berry says.

    This has since grown to become one of the longest-running food drives in North York Harvest’s history!

    For a decade this family initiative has been collecting essential food to support nearly 30,000 individuals and families who rely on North York Harvest Food Bank. Each of Berry’s children have taken turns leading the family food drive: They plan out the routes in their neighbourhood and recruit friends at school to help deliver flyers and collect food donations.

    Passing the torchA teenaged girl stands in a truck surrounded by boxes full of donated food items as part of a food drive.

    With three of his children now in university, the torch was finally passed to his youngest daughter, Jordy, this year. 

    “I learned a lot from our past food drives, and especially over the past two years when my sister spearheaded the food drive at our school,” Jordy says.

    This year Jordy recruited an astonishing 50 students from Havergal College to help run the food drive.

    “The response from students who volunteered to help was incredible, which made it a lot more fun as we were one big team!” she says.

    In the earlier years, about 500 homes would be targeted for donations, yielding about 2,000 lbs of food. But this year Jordy and her team contacted 2,000 homes, collecting 5,350 lbs for our community!

     “I want this initiative to spread to other communities, where people who see this think ‘wow this is so easy to achieve!’ And do it in their own neighbourhoods – we could take this grassroots initiative all over the city!” Berry says.

    Thank you to the Meyerowitz family and all the students at Havergal college who have helped to bring this beautiful community initiative to life year after year! Your hard work and compassion makes a real difference.

    Be a Harvest Hero

    Learn how you can get involved and make a difference as we work towards our vision of a community where all members are able to meet their food needs.

    Start your own food drive!

    OR

    Start a virtual food drive!

  4. Read our Impact Report!

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    A red banner with the text Impact Report: Together we are making a difference

    See your Impact in action!

    We’re pleased to share our biannual Impact Report, a snapshot of the amazing work we have accomplished together this year.

    Between March-August 2024, we made significant strides toward meeting the needs of our community.

    In just six months, we distributed 1.6 million lbs. of food across our network, a 36% increase over last year!

    That includes our staple non-perishable food items, but also high-quality items like fresh produce. We have been working hard to source more fresh food for our clients through variousTwo graphics, one with a truck and the statistic that FoodReach had a 50% increase in deliveries. The second saying FoodReach provided food to 83 child and youth programs, community partnerships – leading to an astonishing 462% increase in fresh vegetables being distributed across our network.

    The support of our community is critical to nearly 30,000 neighbours who rely on North York Harvest Food Bank for emergency support – but your impact doesn’t stop there.

    By moving beyond traditional food bank models and offering innovative programs including Leadership in Logistics, focused advocacy, and our social enterprise, FoodReach, our work targets the root causes of food insecurity and poverty.

    Together, we are building a community that is more equitable, resilient, and where all members are able to meet their food needs.

    View the full Impact Report here.

    Thank you for making this vital community care possible.

    An image of a mother and daughter picking canned food items off the shelves with the text "1 in 4 clients we support is a child."

  5. Who’s Hungry 2024

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    Who’s Hungry Report 2024 – Trapped in Poverty: Unprecedented Hunger in Toronto

    In partnership, North York Harvest Food Bank and Daily Bread Food Bank have released Who’s Hungry 2024— an annual profile of food insecurity and poverty in Toronto.

    In just one year, we saw nearly one million more food bank client visits at a record-breaking  3.49 million visits. That’s more than the population of Toronto.

    A graph depicting the number of food bank visits in Toronto over several decades. After the COVID-19 pandemic starts, there are several sharp increases.

    ACCESS THE REPORT | GET THE SNAPSHOT 

    Almost 155,000 new individuals started using food bank services for the first time this past year — a 222% increase compared to just two years ago and over four times pre-pandemic
    levels.

    Even with food bank clients reporting higher employment rates and wages, the rising costs of living are making it impossible to keep up. More people in our city, from all walks of life, are being trapped in cycles of poverty every single day.

    “It isn’t about who made the right choices and it isn’t about budgeting. It’s so far beyond that. It’s about our support systems and our social safety net that have been allowed to fray to such levels that people aren’t just falling through the cracks, the ground is collapsing beneath their feet,” says Sarah Watson, North York Harvest’s Director of Community Engagement.

    Key findings from the report: Quotation marks with the text: For the last six months I went without a cell phone because I couldn't afford one. I make sure that my kids eat three meals - and basically, I'm eating one meal a day. I've lost a lot of weight because of this.

    • 57% of clients cited the high cost of living as their reason for visiting the food bank
    • Food bank clients have a median monthly income of $1,265 – this is just over half Toronto’s Official Poverty Line ($2,397) for a single person
    • Almost 9 in 10 clients (87%) live in unaffordable housing, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities
    • 58% are from single-person households
    • 50% missed a meal to pay for something else 
    • 49% of food bank clients have at least one member of their household who is employed

    Our city is at a breaking point, and so are our food banks. Food banks cannot fix food insecurity, and we can’t keep up with this demand.

    We need every level of government to come to the table and finally take meaningful action to address this crisis. Our clients have made it clear what they need:

    • Affordable housing
    • A higher minimum wage
    • Increased social assistance rates
    • Newcomer supports
    • Employment support

    We are raising the alarm on food insecurity, and together we can be loud enough that we are impossible to ignore.

    What can you do?

    • Read the full report, available Here
    • Share the report within your network, and tag your City Councillor, Member of Parliament and Member of Provincial Parliament.
    • Join our community advocacy initiative to learn how you can stand with your neighbours and fight for change.

  6. Community Advocacy Group: Fighting poverty from the ground up!

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    Community Advocacy Group: Fighting poverty from the ground up!

    What do you think is the most important issue leading to food bank use? What could help solve that issue? 

    These were the questions we’ve been asking people who come to our food banks over the summer. We wanted to hear about the biggest challenges leading to food insecurity in our community from the people living it – and we wanted to hear what they think should be done about it too. 

    Over the past four months, hundreds of people shared their experiences at our local food banks, and over a hundred people attended one of five workshops to dive deeper into the issues.

    Here’s what we learned: 

    • Housing and the cost of rent was consistently the biggest challenge in people’s lives. This is consistent with our research at NYHFB that shows that once people pay their rent they have very little – if any at all – to spend on food and other necessities. 
    • Food prices, wages, employment, social assistance rates and pensions were among the other top issues prevalent in people’s lives. 

    But we didn’t just discuss the challenges. We also talked about solutions and what we can do to make those solutions a reality, and that’s where things got really exciting. Despite all the challenges our community is facing, people are abundantly clear: not only are we ready for change but we’re ready to take action to make it happen! 

    That’s how our Community Action Group got started — a NYHFB Advocacy Group aimed at tackling the root causes of poverty and hunger from the ground up. Now, we’re getting ready to take action for real change and long-term solutions for our community.  Together we’ll be fighting for rent control, affordable housing and food prices, fair wages, increased social assistance rates and more!

    Interested in joining us? Contact pamela@northyorkharvest.com!

    Three adults and a child sit around a table. The adults are engaged in a lively discussion.

  7. Food for Thought: How social enterprise supports student nutrition

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    Food for Thought: A social enterprise support for student nutrition

    In our Food for Thought series, individuals within North York Harvest Food Bank will share their experience in matters pertaining to food insecurity and poverty. This series will share ideas, perspectives, and lessons learned as we work toward our vision of a community where all members are able to meet their food needs.

    Written by Lianne Holland, Manager of FoodReach

    Last week I got an email from a North York school that said: “we only have $1900 of funding left for our snack program, which will last about a week. Can FoodReach help?” 

    Sadly, this is a common problem for schools. Student Nutrition Programs (SNPs) are struggling to provide adequate food with their current funding. 

    In a recent CBC article, the Ontario Student Nutrition Program Southwest Region shared that “their portion of the $5 million in funding meant $4.29 for each participating student for the entire school year. One healthy snack costs $1.50 on average. Right now, steep increases in food inflation are putting added pressure on already extremely tight budgets.” 

    SNPs play a critical role in a student’s learning and development, as well as food security. It’s estimated that the National School Food Policy will save families with two children up to $800 a year on food costs, and families need it.  

    In July of 2024, North York Harvest saw nearly 30,000 visits to our food banks sites – a 130% increase from the same time in 2019. 

    And 27% of this year’s visits were children and youth, that’s more than 1 in 4 people visiting our food banks. 

    To put it simply, an unprecedented number of kids in Toronto are hungry. 

    Child and youth hunger has a profound impact on learning outcomes, which has a domino effect on the rest of their lives.

    NYH is addressing this hunger crisis through a wrap-around strategy that includes emergency food access, advocacy efforts, and our FoodReach program.

    FoodReach, North York Harvest’s social enterprise, is a non-profit food supplier and logistics service that specializes in selling food to the emergency food access sector and public institutions. We leverage the collective purchasing volume of these sectors to lower food costs, generate a long-term food solution, and strengthen community wealth building. 

    In 2023, FoodReach serviced 197 customers across the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area and 65%  were child and youth programs.

    By leveraging the collective purchasing power of these programs, FoodReach has continuously lowered the cost of food for student nutrition programs across Toronto. On average, we have lowered the cost of snacks by 15% compared to prices from standard retailers. 

    Whether student nutrition programs have stretched budgets, or are fully funded, FoodReach will continue to work on lowering food costs and stretching SNP dollars further so students can focus on learning at school, and so families can trust that their kids are eating nourishing food.

  8. North York Harvest Partners with Canadian Tire to Expand Leadership in Logistics Program

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    North York Harvest Food Bank Partners with Canadian Tire Corporation to Expand Leadership in Logistics Program

    North York Harvest Food Bank is excited to announce its partnership with Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC) on the Leadership in Logistics (LIL) training program. Together we are providing innovative training and employment opportunities to those struggling with food insecurity.

    The LIL program, developed at North York Harvest, is a four-week paid internship that equips participants with essential skills in warehouse logistics, inventory management and forklift operations, empowering them to secure stable jobs.

    By creating pathways to sustainable employment, the program reduces food bank reliance and drives lasting, systemic change in the community.

    “Toronto is facing an unprecedented crisis of affordability, poverty, and food insecurity. North York Harvest is seeing record levels of food bank usage,” says North York Harvest Executive Director Ryan Noble.

    “We understand that free food is only a temporary fix and that traditional charitable models fall short of solving prolonged food insecurity. We have consistently advocated for a holistic approach to supporting individuals struggling with poverty towards truly sustainable livelihoods.”

    Since its launch in 2023, more than 80% of participants have successfully completed the program and have secured full-time employment.

    “The program has impacted my life so well,” recent graduate Moses says. “I had nowhere to start from, I was new here and had no hope. Even some people I met when I came here, they have not yet found work, so for me I got so lucky with the program and I feel so blessed.”

    This partnership demonstrates how a charity and a for-profit business can work together to foster lasting and sustainable change in our community. Read the full press release here.