Loblaws Holiday Food Drive is back! From December 2nd to December 24th, visit a participating Loblaw grocery store and donate food or money to help those in need this holiday season. Please see below for a list of participating stores.
Jason’s No Frills Etobicoke
1530 Albion Road (Finch Ave. E & Albion Rd.)
Carlo’s No Frills
1591 Wilson Ave. (Jane St & Wilson Ave)
Real Canadian Superstore
51 Gerry Fitzgerald Dr. (Dufferin St & Steeles Ave W)
LSL Yonge & Yonge
3501 Yonge Street (Yonge St. & Wilson Ave.)
George’s Independent City Market
3080 Yonge Street (Lawrence Ave. W & Mt. Pleasant Rd.)
Weston Rd. Superstore
2549 Weston Road (Weston Rd. & 401)
Listro’s No Frills North York
3555 Don Mills Road (401 & Finch Ave. E.)
Richard & Ruth’s No Frills North York
1450 Lawrence Avenue East (Victoria Park Ave & Lawrence Ave E)
Bruno’s Your Independent Grocer Don Mills
83 Underhill Drive (Don Valley Pkwy & Lawrence Ave W)
Leonetti’s No Frills
1641 Jane St (Jane St & Lawrence Ave W)
For any of our other drop-off locations click here.
Join us to celebrate the season and support North York Harvest Food Bank and Daily Bread Food Bank.
CBC Sounds of the Season Community Event
Saturday, December 17
10am – 1pm
Don Mills Library
888 Lawrence Avenue East
Come and visit the many booths, from kids’ activities to art activities to a photo booth! Meet some of your favourite CBC personalities and watch live performances from SKETCH, a community arts enterprise, as we come together to support the community this holiday season.
Trucks from North York Harvest and Daily Bread will be on site and we welcome non-perishable food donations.
If you can’t make it and still want to support us, click here for more information.
Family, friends and relaxation, that’s what summer should be all about. But for many families in our community, summer adds a significant stress as they grapple with additional food costs. In fact, summer is the time of year when our community’s food needs are at a peak, yet we receive our lowest level of donations. With your support, we can continue helping nourish families who turn to North York Harvest to meet their food needs.
During the pandemic you have helped make the Hamper Hero Virtual Food Drive a major success! While in-person food drives were not possible, the generous support North York Harvest received from families, schools and community groups was incredible. As we head into the summer months, the positive response continues with an increasing number of community members participating in virtual food drives. Our community continues to need your support, and we’re pleased to be able to help families with your contributions.
Goal Setting: While it may seem simple, setting a fundraising target creates excitement for everyone who donates. Consider setting a reward for meeting your target to get everyone even more engaged.
Make It Special: Select a date and host a kick-off event that gets everyone on board. Consider engaging your network by sharing a video about the work that North York Harvest does.
Give Regular Reminders: Keep your group updated on the success of your Virtual Food Drive by sharing via social media platforms. Encourage everyone who has contributed to share on their social media channels and remember to tag North York Harvest too!
Because of supporters like you, we spent 2017 working with our community to help our most vulnerable neighbours meet their food needs, and find long-term solutions to poverty and food insecurity.
Here are some of our favourite moments.
Gardens Galore!
We had our first ever garden since moving to Pengarth Crt in Lawrence Heights, and were able to run multiple harvest festivals throughout the city.
A joint garden-kitchen program with youth in partnership with PACT at the Lawrence Heights site, teaching kids about the importance of fresh food and healthy eating.
We supported the first ever farmers market at the Bathurst Finch hub, and now there is a weekly good food market on site every Wednesday.
Ensuring consistent service throughout our network of partner agencies
All of our food banks and member agencies are different, but it’s important that no matter where people live in North York that they receive the same standard of service.
This year we also took on a major network wide evaluation of our 19 catchment food banks, based on our Standard of Service. Clients at each site were surveyed and the programs were assigned a score out of 5 on areas such as accessibility, quality and quantity of food, customer service etc. We hope to repeat this assessment on an annual basis.
Our AMAZING donors
As always, our donors blow us away with incredible generosity and support of their community! Young Zack is no different, in just the first grade he’s making a difference for his neighbours. This past holiday season he popped by with cans of tuna that he purchased with his gift money.
Stronger Together: Increasing Services and Impact
We worked with many community agencies to bring enhanced programming and services to our members, including:
Toronto Public Health dental bus at Oriole Food Space. This bus offered free dental care to those who otherwise would go without this necessity!
Smoking cessation workshops
Hearing tests for clients
Diabetes prevention and management programs
We launched the Community Food Works program in partnership with Toronto Public Health’s food strategy at Oriole; a program that teaches food handlers training and food skills to low income individuals. Our pilot at OFS was targeted to Arabic speaking newcomers.
A resident based advocacy and food security program
Several community kitchen programs
Healthy Food Matters! Focusing our Food Drive on Priority Items
This year we worked more intentionally with our fabulous food drive organizers to improve the quality of food we offer to our members. We asked them to hold single food item drives choosing from a list of 5 priority items: Rice, Oil, Canned Beans, Canned Seafood and Canned Tomatoes. These staples are versatile, nutrient-dense foods our network needs to maintain good health. Thanks to our incredible community who helped us answer the call for healthy food!
Leadership in Logistics
With the support from the Metcalf Foundation and The Learning Enrichment Foundation we have launched an exciting new program for individuals currently receiving Ontario Works. Aside from being a stepping stone in breaking the cycle of poverty, the program gives participants a chance to take charge of their own lives with the confidence and training to succeed in promising careers.
It’s that time of year again! CBC is teaming up with food banks across the GTA to raise food and funds to make sure our communities have the food they need to thrive.
Sadly, we at North York Harvest, along with other GTA food banks, need your support now more than ever. Local, provincial and national reports are showing alarming statistics regarding food bank use in our communities.
Food bank use is up across Toronto, with the greatest increase in use happening in the inner suburbs, like North York. 16,000 people will turn to us this month alone to keep food on their tables.
1 in 3 food bank users are children
35% of food bank users will go an entire day without eating
Food bank usage of seniors has skyrocketed 26.5% in the past year
Here’s how our community is taking action to change those alarming findings:
Hilltop Middle School has partnered with us throughout the CBC Sounds of the Season Event. They are focused on collecting the food bank items that are vital to the health of our neighbours struggling to put food on the table: rice, canned tomatoes, canned fish, beans and lentils and cooking oil.
These amazing students have been working hard to make sure people in their community have nutritious food to eat. Their activities have included hosting a school assembly, holding a class competition to collect food, and using their school newsletter and class activities to share information about hunger in Toronto.
One of the students even went Trick or Treating on Halloween to collect items for North York Harvest instead of candy. AMAZING!
To celebrate the incredible work done by the students of Hilltop and the other schools participating on behalf of other food banks, we’ll all be having a friendly food sort competition at the Daily Bread Food Bank location on Friday December 8th.
CBC has been a phenomenal partner in spreading the word about the state of poverty and food insecurity in the city and how food banks across the GTA are taking action on these issues. Our Forklift Instructor Tammy was featured in an inspiring story talking about her journey from food bank user to working here at NYH and the joy that her family felt about her success –you can read it here!
Last year you raised $727,226 through Sounds of the Season for GTA Food Banks!
This year we need you more than ever to make sure everyone in our community can access the healthy food they need to thrive!
Help us spread the word about food bank use in North Toronto – follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and share your commitment to ending hunger in our community.
Look to the person on your left, now look to the person on your right. Chances are that 1 of the 3 of you are living with diabetes or prediabetes. And, alarmingly, you may be one of the 1.5 million people in Canada who have no idea that they have this disease.
Diabetes is a pressing concern for our members. People living in poverty have a much higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes and treating diabetes is especially difficult for people who use food banks because of the lack of fresh, healthy food available. So we’re working to take action on this critical health issue facing our community.
Over the past year North York Harvest & Flemingdon Health Centre have teamed up to provide Diabetes Education Programs for residents in the Don Mills area. Our goal is to provide these programs quarterly for those living with or caring for those with diabetes.
We had a chance to speak with Elena Sobolev, Certified Diabetes Educator & Registered Dietitian regarding these life saving programs.
How did you determine the need for these programs through the food bank?
We have looked at a few areas where clients accessing food banks can benefit from our program. This includes food insecurity, which can be one important risk factor for those living with diabetes or even those who are at high risk; newcomers who need to prioritize settling in and putting food on the table, instead of paying attention to their health, etc.
How many people have participated in the program?
15 participants attended our June session, and 12 participants attended our September session
What is the link between diabetes and poverty?
We know that poverty is a strong risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes. The chronic stress of low income living can increase the levels of cortisol (a stress-hormone), which can result in elevated blood sugar levels. Also, individuals who live in poverty often struggle with access to healthy foods and physical activity programs, which in turn can increase the risk for type 2 diabetes.
What kind of barriers does one in poverty face when dealing with diabetes?
There is a number of barriers faced by individuals who live in poverty. These include lack of access to healthy foods, physical activity programs, as well as high cost of diabetes medications and medical equipment (ex: blood sugar test strips).
What are the effects of untreated diabetes in one that does not have proper access to care or healthy food?
Unfortunately, the consequences of poorly controlled diabetes are quite severe. People can develop problems with their kidneys, eyes, nerves (which can results in amputations), and heart disease (heart attack or stroke).
More and more people of all ages are living with diabetes and being educated is so important. November is Diabetes Awareness month and a great opportunity to learn more about how to take care of yourself and those who love. Please visit https://www.diabetes.ca/ to learn more.
Often when we think of poverty, we don’t think about how deep the problem is in our very own backyard.
In North York, poverty hides in high rise apartments, rooming houses and shelters. Often food is the last priority on a long list of bills that must be paid by our neighbours who are struggling to make ends meet each month.
All too often, we hear stories like Holly’s.
“I always thought I could do it on my own. I was able to pay my rent, phone, and medications with the little money I had. Food was always last on my list. Being a type 1 diabetic that takes insulin every day, eating properly is very important. I soon realized that I could not do everything on my own.
I found the food bank and soon found out I was receiving more than help with my food. I found a sense of community”.
Because of skyrocketing housing prices, unsteady employment and social assistance rates that have failed to keep up with the cost of the living in our city – thousands of our neighbours are struggling to get by each day. Together we can change that.
Your support provides more than food. It provides social inclusion through programs like Community Kitchens, employment readiness training like our Leadership in Logistics program and ensures we can continue to invest in long term solutions to end hunger and poverty. We know that food banks alone aren’t the answer. With your help, we can make sure providing essential emergency food support is just the start of the relationship we build with those that need us most.
Please make the most generous gift you can today and help make a lasting difference in the lives of our neighbours. I know that together we can make so much more possible in North Toronto.
Every day, people in your community rely on food banks to put food on the table for their families. In fact, North York Harvest helps more than 15,000 people meet their basic food needs each month. Many people don’t know that over 30% of people using our food bank are children – and a growing number of them in our community will be going back to school this year without enough food to be healthy and successful in school.
Tricia is a teacher at Beaumonde Heights Junior Middle School, one of our local schools. She sees many students coming to school with empty stomachs. Her students understand what it is like to use a food bank – either because their own family uses one, or one of their friends.
Beaumonde Heights JMS has hosted food drives for North York Harvest for 15 years, and this year is no different. All students get involved in the food drive to support their school, friends and neighbours. They know just how important these programs are.
Of course, childhood hunger is a symptom of family poverty. North York Harvest and our agencies are on the frontlines of a childhood poverty epidemic: according to a recent report, nearly 27% of children in Toronto live in poverty. In the North York community, that percentage is much higher. In some of our neighborhoods, almost 44% of children are living in poverty – and are much less likely to have access to enough healthy food to be successful in school.
We are facing serious challenges in this community. But every day, we are inspired by acts of compassion from people like Tricia who are determined to make a difference in the lives of kids in North York.
Today you can take action to join Tricia and the students from Beaumonde Heights in making a difference for kids heading back to school this fall. By making a gift to North York Harvest Food Bank you will be helping thousands of kids and their parents that rely on programs that provide healthy meals and snacks.
All children, no matter where they live or what their circumstances, deserve the same opportunity to succeed.
We had a chance to speak with Elena Sobolev, Certified Diabetes Educator & Registered Dietitian regarding these life saving programs.
