Tag Archive: food sort

  1. Looking for Volunteers

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    Are you looking for a fun way to get involved with your community and make a BIG impact on the lives of your neighbours that use the food bank?

    We’re looking for volunteers and we have so many positions available to suit your needs! 

    Looking to volunteer for just a day or two?

    We offer one time volunteer positions for the Spring Food Drive!

    We are currently in need of drivers assistants to help our truck drivers pick up food for the following dates:

    Thursday April 20 (9am -4pm)

    Friday April 21 (9am -4pm)

    Monday April 24 (9am -4pm)

    To sign up for a shift, call Lisa at 416-635-7771 ext. 29 or lisa@northyorkharvest.com

     

    Want to come in for an evening with family and friends?

    Every Tuesday evening we offer sorting sessions for families and friends!  Learn how YOUR help in the food sorting room goes a long way to ensure that your neighbours get the best food possible! It’s a great way to have fun, get some exercise and give back!

    To join us on a Tuesday evening from 5:30-7:30 call Kadian at 416-635-7771 ext. 28 or kadian@northyorkharvest.com

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    Are you looking for an opportunity to bring your coworkers in for a volunteer experience?

    We offer corporate volunteer sorting sessions!  It’s a great way to learn about food insecurity in your community and work as a team to help make a difference!

    For Corporate Groups contact Shirah Stern at 416-635-7771 ext. 48 or shirah@northyorkharvest.com

    For Community Groups, Schools and other groups contact Leslie Venturino at 416-635-7771 ext. 21 or leslie@northyorkharvest.com

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    Want to be a volunteer on a regular basis? 

    There are many positions that let you get involved with your community on a weekly basis!  We’re in need of the following positions:

    FOOD SORTERS

    We’re looking for core sorters to join us in the warehouse to sort through donations before they reach the food banks

    Monday, 12:30pm to 3:30pm

    Wednesday, 12:30pm to 3:30pm

     

    FOOD BANK VOLUNTEERS

    img_4541Lawrence Heights Community Food Space (Lawrence/Allen area)

    Tuesday, 1pm to 5pm – distribute food hampers

    Tuesday, 8am to 12pm – receiving food orders

    Room to Grow Food Bank (Kipling/The Westway area)

    Wednesday, 9:15am to 12:30pm – receiving food orders

    Oriole Food Space (Don Mills/Sheppard area)

    Monday, 9:30am to 1pm or 1pm to 3:30pm – receiving food orders

    St Vincent de Paul Food Bank (640 Glenholme Ave) is in need of volunteers twice per month to help unload groceries from the truck (typically the second and fourth Thursdays of the month).

     

     WORKING ON OUR TRUCKS

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    Driving Assistants

    We need some volunteers who can spend a day with our drivers.  See first hand where our food comes from and where it goes.

    To become a regular volunteer, call Lisa at 416-635-7771 ext. 29 or lisa@northyorkharvest.com

     

    Want to learn more about volunteering with North York Harvest? Learn more about what our volunteers have to say here!

     





  2. Food Sorting Supervisor Volunteer

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    Looking to get some management experience while helping your neighbours in need?

    We’re looking for a Food Sorting Supervisor Volunteer to join us for 3 hours in the morning once per week to facilitate food sorting sessions in the warehouse. A three month commitment is requested.

    In this senior volunteer position, you would train other volunteers to sort donated food products.

    Volunteers follow North York Harvest’s and Ontario Health & Safety Rules and Regulations.  To qualify for volunteer hours, you will need to provide a letter and reference.

    There is only one position of this kind available, apply today!

    Call Kadian at 416-635-7771 x 28 or kadian@northyorkharvest.com

     

  3. The Meaning of Thanksgiving

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    Guest Blog by Tina

    What does Thanksgiving mean to you?

    To me it means family, neighbours and community.

    I wasn’t always a member of your community.  My family came here over 20 years ago for a fresh start and I was met with open arms by wonderful families that I now consider to be my family.

    As new arrivals to Canada, we didn’t have the means to celebrate a Thanksgiving meal – but we were invited to share the holiday with a wonderful family that had us over to their home. And that really meant a lot.

    They told us that the true meaning of the holiday is being grateful sharing what we have – they even told us more about our new country and the incredible fresh start and adventure we are about to enjoy.  Thanks to their hospitality – I also had my first taste of pumpkin pie and it remains one of my favourite desserts up until this day!

    These days I volunteer at a local community center that supports newcomers just like I once was. People can go there for food, ESL classes, cooking lessons and job placement support. I get to witness firsthand how generosity from people just like you go a long way to helping people build a new life here in Canada.

    When I think about that special gift we received on our first Thanksgiving – this time of year really gets me in the mood to help people that are struggling to get back onto their feet.  People right in our community.

    This year I will be working with my community center, their staff, volunteers and even families who we’ve helped in the past and are now coming back to pay it forward, to ensure families who are struggling in the neighbourhood have a hot and festive meal on Thanksgiving and have enough food at home all month long.

    And I want to invite you to join me and do the same.

    Let’s Leave Hunger Behind and make this a Thanksgiving to remember. So that 20 years from now, when new families share their stories, they, like I do, will remember with joyfulness, their first fall in Canada.

    We can’t do it without you though!

    Join us for the 2016 Fall Food Drive to make this Thanksgiving and the rest of the fall a special time everyone can be grateful for!

    There are many ways you can join me and the thousands of amazing people in our community working to make a difference!

    Donate – For every $1 you donate, you provide 3 meals to a person that is hungry!

    Volunteer – There are many great opportunities with the Fall Food Drive – join the NYH truck drivers to pick up and deliver food or come out to one of the many great events planned to raise food for our neighbours!

    Run a Food & Funds Drive – This is a fun way to work together as a team with friends, family, classmates, coworkers and anyone else that would like to make a difference!

    Join the Public Sort –Sort food at the NYH warehouse on October 9 for a great way to spend Thanksgiving weekend with your family while ensuring food is sorted and ready to be delivered to families in need!

    Get Social! – Use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media to spread the news about the food drive with these great shareables!

    During this season of Thanksgiving, join me in showing our neighbours that we care about them.

    This Thanksgiving, let’s Leave Hunger Behind.

     

     





  4. 2015/2016 Stakeholder Impact Review

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    The Joy of Food

    This has been one incredible year.  We want to celebrate YOU and all you do for people in your community with the release of our 2015/2016 Stakeholder Impact Review.  Because of your support, thousands of people are able to experience the #joyoffood!  In fact, almost 5 MILLION meals have been served and it wouldn’t have happened without you by our side.

    Click here to see your impact!





  5. Because of YOU!

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    This year because of you amazing things happened!  You made a huge impact in the lives of people in your community that didn’t have enough food to eat!  Your donations, food drives, volunteering and support provided an incredible amount of food to people in Toronto!  Thank you!

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    Cheers to another amazing year and onto the next!

    View in PDF

     





  6. Sorting Through It All

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    With your support, we serve over 15,000 people that are hungry each month!  As you can imagine, it takes A LOT of food to be able to provide meals for our neighbours in need.

    Through generous donations of individual and corporate donors, we receive 100,000’s of pounds of food.  But all of this food isn’t ready to go out to the food banks – it must be sorted for quality first.

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    I caught up with Kadian Clarke, a staff member at North York Harvest – she works with groups of volunteers to sort through thousands of pounds of food.  Since January, she’s trained and sorted with over 1,000 people including employee groups, schools, sports teams as well as families.

    “My favourite part of the job is teaching people about the foods in the food bank as well as building awareness of hunger in our city.”

    It turns out in order to sort all of this food; there are many rules.  The reason for this is so we can provide the best possible food to people in your community.  That means we can’t accept damaged, unlabeled, expired or half-eaten foods (yes, all of these items come into the warehouse on a regular basis and must be sorted before they reach the food bank).

    “There are 23 categories of food that go out to agencies.” Kadian tells me as she sets up the sort room for her next group.   These categories include baby food, rice, nutritional supplements, snacks and proteins – others in higher demand than others. “The important part of sorting them into these categories is that we can better serve the clients with food they need. This way agencies don’t get a box of random items ranging from tuna to pudding cups when what they really needed was canned beans.”

    We are extremely thankful for all of the donations that we receive, but some of them can be completely strange.  I asked some of the staff what items they’ve seen through the years that made them raise an eyebrow.

    We definitely see the wacky and the weird in our bins on a regular basis for example:

    • Graham crackers from a company that went out of business years ago
    • Vegetable soup that expired in 1995
    • Lawn fertilizer
    • Firewood
    • Caviar that was 10 years past the best before date
    • Rotting eggs
    • Cut off shorts
    • Expired military rations
    • Hazmat suits

    Thankfully, most donations received are exactly what our clients are looking for in a food hamper: items like canned fish, canned tomatoes, beans, rice and baby food.  It’s important that we take the time to sort and categorize these items. Unfortunately sorting through unwanted items is a lot of extra work.  And it takes valuable time and money to dispose of anything that is damaged or expired.

    Volunteers come in to sort with their coworkers or friends and end the session knowing more about hunger in the city and why their help is so essential. The thing that Kadian sees volunteers take away from the food sorting experience is a sense of accomplishment within the community.  “After each sort session, we share how many pounds of food were sorted and how many families they are helping.  This way the volunteers get to see their hard work pay off first hand.  The groups feel great about being able to make a difference.”  And make a difference they do.

     

     

     

     




  7. Corporate Sort Teams

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    We had an amazing time this year with our corporate sort groups and there is still more to come!  Check out this great video we made of the summer sort teams (so far…)

     

     

    Join us!

    Engage your employees, reach out to your community of customers and add value to your philanthropy. Together we can make sure that no one in Toronto has to go without enough food to feed their families.

    Find out more here or contact Kadian at 416-635-7771 ex 28 // kadian@northyorkharvest.com

     




  8. Guest Blog: Meet Chloe

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    At North York Harvest Food Bank, we are so lucky to have AMAZING donors, volunteers and supporters make a difference in the lives of over 15,000 people in your community EACH MONTH!

     

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    Hi Everyone!

    I am 11 years old and in grade 5 at Blessed Sacrament Catholic School. I got into volunteering at the food bank after my family and I went to drop off some donations and got a chance to have a tour of the sorting facility. My favourite part about volunteering is having a great feeling that I help out and being able to tell my friends about my experience and ask that they help out too.

    For my birthday I was lucky to have 2 parties. One with friends and one with my family. For the family celebrations, I asked my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents to collect their loose change and bring it on my birthday instead of buying me presents.  It felt great when they brought their change and I put it into the container that I was collecting it in and brought it when we went to sort food in March. My family thought it was really cool and they promised that they will try to save more change for the next time I come to them to collect for the food bank. My cousins were happy to help.

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    My mom always tells us how lucky we are for having so much. Living in a nice house, having lots of toys and always food and snacks. She told us that not too far from where we live there are many kids who live in very sad situations. They don’t have toys, they don’t have a big house and many of them only get very little to eat. They have no choice of what to eat. 

    My mom also told us that she has to decided every day what she is going to cook for dinner, but there are parents out there who have to decide between paying the rent or buying food. This makes me very sad. So that’s why I want to help out the food bank so that kids can have meals.

    We plan to volunteer at the sorting facility, I am still collecting change to bring along. I am also going to make little things to sell to my friends to raise money. I have also invited friends to come with us to help sort food.

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    I think volunteering is fun and it makes you feel great!

    Thank you,

    Chloe

     

     

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    Thank you, Chloe for being such an inspiration and helping people in your community!

    If you would like to join Chloe in making a difference, see the many ways you can get involved with us here!