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Bathurst-Finch in Photos
Welcome to the Bathurst-Finch Community Food Space! It’s North York Harvest’s busiest food space, located in the Westminster-Branson community at the Herb Carnegie Centennial Centre. Follow along to learn more about Bathurst-Finch and the community we serve.
The North York Harvest delivery truck arrives in the morning with food for the week’s programs. In addition to essential non-perishable food received from the community, North York Harvest works with several partner organizations to procure high-quality fresh foods including meat, dairy and produce.
Volunteers get to work unpacking the day’s deliveries onto the shelves and into the fridges ahead of service in the afternoon.
Bathurst-Finch has three program days a week, serving over 3800 client visits per month.
Bathurst-Finch has a dedicated team of nearly 40 volunteers who help out on a regular basis, including Jesse! Jesse has been with us since September, helping out with everything from client registration to receiving shipments, and helping our community engagement team with advocacy initiatives.
“As a person who has required food banks for most of my life, it feels good to be able to provide back to a service that has provided to me,” Jesse says.
His favourite moment of volunteering so far was attending the Budget Rally in February 2025 at CIty Hall. The Community Engagement team mobilized 60+ food bank clients down to City Hall to attend the rally and hand-deliver petitions to our elected officials.
Julie has been working at North York Harvest since 2015, where she began as a student in community social work.
“I like engaging with clients, you get to meet a lot of community members on different levels – not just inside the food space but in the community itself.
“For a lot of our members, this is their only option, it’s no longer a temporary solution. North York Harvest has been doing a lot of outreach at our food spaces to get more community members involved in our advocacy efforts to fight together for change.”
North York Harvest uses a choice model as part of our commitment to dignified food assistance. Our volunteers show clients what is available on the shelves, and clients are able to choose what they would like to cook for themselves and their families. This allows clients to adhere to their own unique dietary or cultural restrictions, and it reduces food waste by not serving community members food they cannot use.
Bathurst-Finch serves a diverse community from all walks of life, including many clients of Filipino and Ukrainian descent.
Our Bathurst-Finch Community
- Nearly 20% of client visits are seniors
- 1 in 4 are children and youth
- 57% of clients are from 1 or 2-person households
- In the past 6 months, 25% of clients served were first-time clients
“Like most Ukrainians, we lived very well in our country, not needing anything. Everything was abundant. No one expected a full-scale invasion… It’s very scary to be in another country without even being able to provide ourselves with food. So we are extremely grateful to the food bank for providing us with such support. “ – Diana, client
There’s a reason North York Harvest calls its food banks ‘community food spaces.’ Beyond emergency food support, these are welcoming spaces where clients can connect with one another and build relationships with our volunteers and staff.
It’s where they can access wraparound supports for other vital resources like clothing and health services that improve their quality of life. It’s also where community members, whose concerns are often ignored by those in power, can find platforms to use their voice for change.
Thank you for joining us at Bathurst-Finch, and thank you to our donors, staff, and volunteers who help make this critical work possible every day.
Together we are working toward our vision of a community where all members are able to meet their food needs.
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