Comments Off on July Community Food Hub Update: Bringing Our Vision to Life
Last fall, North York Harvest Food Bank launched our Crisis to Catalyst campaign, an ambitious plan to build a new 30,000+ sq. ft. Community Food Hub designed to meet the food insecurity crisis head on, while building long-term solutions.
Now, we’re proud to share that construction is officially underway at our future home on Chesswood Drive, and our excitement is building!
The markings on the concrete floor are beginning to define new spaces, while plumbing is being installed throughout the Hub. You can already picture the future
washrooms, community kitchen, and handwashing stations that will support volunteers, staff, and community members.
One of the most exciting sights is the enormous opening in the concrete floor. This is where our industrial-scale freezer is being built, insulated from the ground up to safely store hundreds of pallets of fresh, nutritious food. Just beside it, an equally impressive space is taking shape for our new refrigerator.
Altogether, this 5,000 sq. ft. refrigerated space will dramatically expand our ability to store and distribute fresh produce, dairy, and culturally relevant food across our food bank network. This will also scale up our social enterprise FoodReach, growing capacity to buy more locally grown food to distribute at affordable prices to schools, libraries, and drop-ins across Southern Ontario.
Every pipe, every wall, and every layer of concrete brings us one step closer to opening a Community Food Hub that will transform how food is distributed across Toronto.
Building skills and partnerships along the way
We’re also thrilled to announce we have teamed up with our long-time partner Building Up to support construction of the Hub, while also supporting our community. Building Up is a non-profit social enterprise that helps people facing employment barriers find pathways to successful careers in the trades.
Through this partnership, 35 trainees from Building Up will gain hands-on skills and work experience in the trades over 1,000 training hours.
“The construction of the Hub is an example of our community wealth building approach in practice,” says Executive Director Ryan Noble, “and it demonstrates our commitment to supporting social enterprises and procurement practices that benefit our local community.”
We’ll be back next month to share more updates from our future home. In the meantime, take a virtual tour of the Community Food Hub!
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