Welcome to Weston Area Emergency Support
Comments Off on Welcome to Weston Area Emergency SupportAgency Spotlight: Welcome to WAES
North York Harvest Food Bank is the primary food bank of Northern Toronto, but we’re more than just one organization.
We work with a network of nearly 40 partner agencies, united by a shared mission to help our communities meet their food needs. Together we serve 30,000 community members every month, ensuring families and individuals including children, seniors, and persons with disabilities have access to dignified food support.
One partner agency, The Weston Area Emergency Support (WAES), started the same way. Several local churches came together to create a food bank in 1986 to meet a rising need in the Weston area.
Since then, the need in Weston has only increased, and today WAES serves 3,500 client visits every month.
They operate with a passionate team of 50 regular volunteers, 50 casual volunteers, and one food space manager.
About WAES
- Two program days serving food to their community each week
- Nearly 1 in 3 client visits are children
- Seniors represent 16% of all visits
- 3 in 4 clients identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and Person of Colour)
Diana Stapleton has been a volunteer at WAES for over 30 years. Before retiring, she worked in research and advocacy at Food Banks Canada. She says WAES strives to be a low-barrier food bank with an emphasis on providing fresh food to clients, including eggs, produce, and halal protein.
In addition to support received from North York Harvest and Second Harvest, WAES relies on the generosity of their community to keep shelves and fridges stocked.
“York South-Weston has always been known as one of the lowest-income ridings in Ontario,” Diana says. “We’ve got a really interesting and vibrant community, but also a lot of the issues that go along with people struggling with low income.”
“One question I get asked a lot is: Well how do you know they really need it? People have to spend so much time proving they’re poor enough to receive so many other supports that we are committed to being a low-barrier food bank,” Diana says.
WAES has seen a 20% increase in client visits over last year, and it’s coming to a breaking point – to the extent they may need to cut off new client visits.
“It’s the last thing we want to do, but with the space we have we can’t bring in enough food to give out,” she says.
“Everyone is saying the same thing: This is the worst situation for food insecurity we’ve ever had. Everybody knows it, and still nobody is doing anything – if we as a nation are going to help people, we have to do it properly.”