Tag Archive: food security

1. Join the Fall Food Drive!

   October 9, 2015 12:54 pm Comments Off on Join the Fall Food Drive!

   It’s Thanksgiving weekend!  I hope you are all looking forward to enjoying time and a nice meal with all of your families.

   As I think about the abundance of delicious food that will be set at my table, I also am confronted with a troubling thought.  Many families in our very own community will not have the luxury to sit down to a large dinner with their loved ones.  Many won’t even have enough food to fill their bellies.

   It’s a tough thing to think about.  Thanksgiving is the time of year when we celebrate and are thankful for what we have and the food at our table. But it’s hard for someone to be thankful when they don’t have enough food to eat.

   That is where YOU come in!  Because of the incredible support from caring people like you, many of our neighbours are able to access nutritious food to feed their families.

   As the weather gets colder and we get ready for Thanksgiving, the NYH Annual Fall Food Drive to raise $100,000 and 100,000 pounds of food to provide 300,000 meals for our neighbours in need is in full swing.  Your support will make an amazing difference in the lives of so many families in Toronto.  Just $1 can provide 3 meals. Your small act of kindness today will make a lot of parents and children nourished and happy.  Will you consider helping us reach this goal?

   What can you do?

   Get involved and run a Food & Fund Drive!  It’s so easy to sign up and put together a food drive with your family, coworkers, school, clubs or friends!  Check out this really fun list of ideas to get started.

   If you don’t have time to set up a food & fund drive yourself, donate online or make a food donation at local grocery stores and fire halls.  For a list of where you can donate groceries, please click here.

   Not sure what kind of items to donate?  Here’s a handy list of food items that are in high demand, especially around this time of year.

   The top 5 needed items are:

   • Baby Food
   • Canned fish
   • Canned chickpeas and other beans
   • Cooking oil (personal sized bottles)
   • Soup

   Click here to see what other items are needed most.

   If you are digging through your pantry to find items to donate, be sure that they are not expired.  Items that are past the best before date are accepted.  For more information on expiry and best before dates, check out our blog post.

   You can make a difference in the lives of 13,000 parents, children and grandparents that rely on food banks every month.  It is because of generous people like you that we can make hunger in Canada a thing of the past.

   Let’s make this Thanksgiving a holiday that everyone can be thankful for.

2. Voting For A Food Secure Canada

   July 31, 2015 6:52 pm Comments Off on Voting For A Food Secure Canada

   Federal election season is just around the corner, and with the spotlight shining brighter on the many social, economic and environmental issues impacting Canadians, I’m finding myself filled with conflicting emotions. On the one hand, I know that objectively speaking, I live in amazing country; one that encourages its citizens to share their voices, and offers many social services to enhance their quality of life. But just as there’s so much to be proud of in Canada, there are also many reasons to be critical.

   For example, this month alone, over 840,000 of your fellow Canadians, 37% of which are children, will go to their local food bank looking for their next meal. That number has grown steadily since the recession of 2009 and with little national policy in place to combat food insecurity, there’s no reason to believe that things will turn around soon.

   Simply put, in a country as developed and prosperous as Canada, no one should have to worry about where their next meal will come from.

   Because of your donations, food banks like North York Harvest are able to make sure that Canadians in need can put good, healthy meals on the table. But that doesn’t mean that the issue has been resolved.

   On October 19th 2015, we will go to the polls to decide who makes the big decisions in our country moving forward. With food bank usage across the country at all-time high levels, now is the time to let politicians know that food security is important to you and to millions of other Canadians, and that improvements to the current policy need to be made.

   Here are a few simple actions that you can take to make sure that issues surrounding hunger and food banks are not forgotten this election season.

   1)  Contact the Member of Parliament candidates in your riding and let them know that food security in Canada is important to you and your neighbours. Call their office, write them a letter, email, or even tweet at them. It’s going to be their job to represent the views of their constituents; so make sure that they know that you’re passionate about this issue.

   2) Attend local debates and try to get the issue of hunger in Canada on the agenda. This is great way to ensure that the topic becomes part of the discussion during the campaign and that strategies are being put forth by candidates.

   3) On October 19^th, head to the polls and vote for the candidate or party that represents your hope for a Canada without hunger!

   If you’re not sure what party best aligns with your beliefs, you might want to take this on-line quiz.

   This election season let’s make our communities without a enough food a priority. Let us know what you’re doing to spread the word by tweeting at us today with hash-tag #votefood4all.

   *Statistics taken from Food Banks Canada’s Hunger Count 2014 Report*

3. Toronto’s Poverty Strategy Focuses On Food Security

   July 2, 2015 5:50 pm Comments Off on Toronto’s Poverty Strategy Focuses On Food Security

   Toronto is our home town. If you’re like me, whenever you speak with people from outside the city, it can be hard not to get swept up in the positives. We love the city’s history, cultural vibrancy and diversity. Some days I wonder if I could ever live anywhere else. However, we’ve probably romanticized our city. Toronto has a darker side, serious problems that are too easy to ignore.

   Last week you might have notice that the city of Toronto released TO Prosperity, a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy. In the introduction, Deputy Mayor Pam Mcconnell wrote openly about how, despite Toronto’s reputation as a prosperous city and a centre of economic growth, our poverty problem has become impossible to ignore. 1/4 of Toronto’s children live in poverty. So do 46% of new comers to Canada, 33% of racialized groups, and 30% of people with disabilities.

   “This inequality is simply unacceptable. Toronto can do better”, wrote Mcconnell.

   As the primary food bank for northern Toronto, we whole heartedly agree with this statement. I know you do too!  Everyday at North York Harvest we witness the impact of poverty in our communities, and strategize about how, together, we can continue to make improvements. We’re lucky to know that we can rely on your donations to help put food on our neighbour’s tables, but at the same time, we know that for things to truly get better we need a serious commitment from our city’s government to address the growing poverty in our communities. TO Prosperity is a step in the right direction.

   As you probably know, a major contributor to the city’s poverty is lack of access to affordable and healthy food. It’s no secret that a plentiful and nutritious diet leads to healthier kids, more productive adults, and stronger communities. Yet in many of the city’s neighbourhoods, good food is very hard to come by. Since 2008 Toronto’s inner suburbs have seen a 38% increase in food bank visits, with over 1 million visits a year. It’s an alarming number, and one that might have you asking, ‘In a wealthy city like Toronto, with so much food available, why are so many people going without?’

   Well, the problem isn’t so much that the food isn’t there, but that it’s unavailable to so many of our neighbours. Farmer’s markets, grocery stores and restaurants are all abundant in TO, but their prices have become so high that they exclude a large part of the city’s community members. Markets and sources of fresh produce also tend to avoid low income neighbourhoods, leading to large urban areas referred to as “food deserts”. To sum it up, the problem isn’t a lack of food, but a lack of income.

   To combat this, the committee has put forward some recommendations and actions aimed at bringing healthy and affordable food into Toronto’s less prosperous neighbourhoods. If you haven’t had a chance to look through them yet, take a look, and then head on to Twitter  – Do you agree?  Is it enough? What else can we do?

   Some of the key actions that stuck out to us will seek to:

   • “Develop mechanisms that make it easy and cost-effective for community agencies and schools to procure healthy food.” – 11.1
   • “Encourage local markets in public spaces, and open civic land and spaces to host food markets.” – 11.4
   • “Support mechanisms to increase student nutrition programs in collaboration with school boards.” – 11.6
   • “Remove barriers (zoning, licensing, planning) to maximize urban agriculture and food production on public and private space and land.” – 12.1
   • “Create clear policies that support the 30 development of community kitchens, outdoor bake ovens, community cooking classes and other food-oriented activities that support social cohesion and food access, and create economic opportunities.” – 12.3

   In particular, action 10.3 –  “Support food banks to improve the quality of their food stock, provide culturally specific food, and increase access and eligibility to food for people in need”, really struck a chord with our team.

   Your generous donations keep food in our neighbour’s cupboards stocked, but as the demand continues to grow, we’re constantly striving to improve the quality of our services, by providing a greater quantity of fresh and culturally specific food options. We recently invested in a new fridge triple the size our old one, and a freezer double the size of our old one, allowing us to accept and distribute more of your fresh produce and food donations.  This means that, this month, a young child gets to bring nutritious lunch to camp, or a new Canadian family will get to enjoy seasonal local produce around the dinner table.

   If you are as passionate about the Poverty Reduction Strategy as we are, please consider contacting your city councillor and letting them know that you support the plan. The final strategy will be brought to council in the fall, with hopes to include it in the 2106 budget. You can read the entire report here.

   In the meantime, please show your support for a food secure Toronto by making a donation to North York Harvest today.