Tag Archive: city hall

1. What happens to food after it’s donated?

   June 27, 2025 9:52 am Comments Off on What happens to food after it’s donated?

   The journey of a food donation

   Have you ever wondered what happens after you drop off food at North York Harvest Food Bank?

   Lettuce give you an example…

   

   Our community partner Future Fresh Farms arrives at the warehouse on a Friday morning with a generous donation of their fresh, locally grown lettuce! They turn unusable, grey commercial space in Toronto into urban vertical farms to produce aeroponically grown food.

   Over the past three months they have contributed 1,062 lbs of fresh produce to fight food insecurity and support our community!

   

   Once food arrives, our Operations team receives the items, weighs, and tracks them so we know how much food we have on hand to distribute, how long we’ve had it, and when/where it will be delivered to support individuals and families in need.

   

   For non-perishable items dropped off from food drives or partner organizations, they’re added into the donation bins in our sort room to be inspected for safety by our diligent volunteers, and then sorted into boxes by category.

   North York Harvest supports 30,000 clients in meeting their food needs every month, so food has to move in and out of the warehouse quickly and efficiently – especially perishable items like lettuce!

   Each week we distribute about 46,000 lbs of food across our four community food spaces and our network of 37 partner agencies.

   En Route

   The lettuce is loaded up first thing in the morning into one of our delivery trucks.

   First stop: Our Lawrence Heights Community Food Space.

   

   The Community Food Space is located within the Lawrence Heights Community Centre in the dance studio.

   Our driver Oscar arrives at Lawrence Heights ahead of their program day at 11am. Volunteers help unload skids of food to put on the shelves and into the fridge as they set up for a busy day providing nourishing food to our community.

   

   Tables, chairs, and shelving are pulled out of storage and loaded with non-perishable items from the morning’s delivery. In addition to non-perishables, clients will also have access to milk, eggs, bread, cucumbers, and of course, lettuce.

   Lawrence Heights serves a diverse community, supporting 1340 clients every month in meeting their food needs.

   

   One of our community members, Flor, says, “I was so happy to see lettuce available!”

   “It’s hard for seniors to find work. I’m having surgery soon, and I need the nutrients to be healthy, but when I go to the grocery store everything is so expensive,” Flor says.

   “Whenever I get fruits and vegetables from the food bank, I like to make them into healthy juices,” she adds.

   Every day our community comes together to ensure neighbours facing food insecurity have enough to eat. Every donation: From bottles of cooking oil, to pasta, and fresh produce makes this critical journey from our warehouse to our food spaces and into the hands of someone who needs it.

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   Learn how you can donate food and funds to support our neighbours in need.

2. Community BBQ to Get Out the Vote this federal election!

   April 24, 2025 3:52 pm Comments Off on Community BBQ to Get Out the Vote this federal election!

   Removing barriers at the ballot box

   As the need for food banks is reaching record highs, voter turnout in our community is reaching record lows.

   There are many barriers stopping people from making it to the ballot box.

   After paying rent and utilities, on average our community members only have about $7 per day to spend on food, transportation, medication and all other expenses. It’s not easy getting to the polls when getting there eats into your food budget. 

   The No. 1 reason people walk through our doors is the high cost of rent, and far too many don’t even have a permanent place to call home. It’s not easy exercising your right to vote when you don’t have a permanent address. 

   That’s why North York Harvest Food Bank held a Community BBQ to Get Out the Vote on Sunday, April 13.

   We had free food, games, raffles, face-painting, advocacy, and free transportation taking attendees to the polls to cast their vote.

   Over 600 people attended the BBQ throughout the day, with 75 folks heading to the polls. Many community members who voted said if it weren’t for this initiative, they wouldn’t have been able to vote.

   Watch a short highlight reel from our BBQ below!

   That week, our Community Engagement team also visited each of our four food spaces to shuttle over 100 clients to vote and ensure no one was turned away from exercising their right to vote. For some, it was their very first time voting.

   “This whole initiative, whether it was the BBQ or the shuttles from our food banks to the polling station was really just about making sure the people most impacted by the affordability crisis are having their voices heard in this election,” says North York Harvest’s Senior Advocacy Specialist Chiara Padovani.

   By removing barriers in the voting process, nearly 200 community members cast their ballot this federal election!

   

3. Our community mobilized for change – and won!

   February 27, 2025 10:58 am Comments Off on Our community mobilized for change – and won!

   In December, the City of Toronto declared food insecurity an emergency.

   In the following two months, North York Harvest Food Bank collected hundreds of petition signatures, sent dozens of letters and gave deputations to urge every city councillor to pass a city budget that puts people first.

   For years North York Harvest has been making policy recommendations to government, but this year we mobilized our community like never before to take these issues to the doorstep of our decisionmakers and put them on notice.

   On the day of the official City budget deliberation, we brought a delegation of 60+ people from our community food banks and joined with other community members and organizations at the City Budget Rally outside City Hall.

   (In December our Community Action Group got together for an Art Build event, where North York Harvest clients made signs and posters. The event was a platform for our community to connect with one another on issues that are impacting them every day and use their voice for real change.)

   After the rally, we went into City Hall to deliver petitions to our elected officials, calling for them to support the following in the budget:

   A TTC fare freeze
   The TTC fare freeze means people won’t have to choose between transportation and their next meal.With food bank users having as little as $7.78 left per day after rent and utilities, even a small fare increase can make a big difference.

   More funding for renter supports
   Additional funding for RentSafeTO, the Toronto Rent Bank and the Tenant Support Program will help prevent evictions and protect affordable housing in Toronto.

   An expansion of the Student Nutrition Program
   With 1 in 4 food bank users being a child, access to nutritional food at school is life-changing.

   More funding for drop-in meal programs
   Drop-ins are providing life-saving meals to Toronto’s most vulnerable populations, and adding $530,000 to the Creating Health Plus budget would ensure these vital programs would at least be able to operate with the same level of funding as last year. 

   And together … we won!

   

   Thanks to the advocacy of our community, the meaningful action of Mayor Olivia Chow and many city councillors, and the support of our donors who make this work possible, more children will have meals, more renters will have support, drop-in meal programs will continue to be able to serve vulnerable communities, and budgets won’t get squeezed even further by transit costs.

   Together we make change happen!