North York Harvest Food Bank | partnership Archives

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Soup’s On!

July 7, 2017 5:27 am Comments Off

Isn’t it amazing what can happen when a community comes together to complete a project and make a difference?

With your generous support, North York Harvest has become the primary food bank in northern Toronto. Thanks to you we are able to give nutritious food to over 77 food programs in the city.

But what if we could take it another step further? What if we could produce a food product to even out the supply and quality of food received through donations?

The vision of North York Harvest is a community where all members are able to meet their food needs. Our mission is to engage our community in meeting the food needs of northern Toronto by providing dignified food assistance, education and long-term food solutions.

Each day we strive to meet that vision and mission.

As a community, we have succeeded in kickstarting a new social enterprise thanks to partnerships right here in Toronto.

Through the generous support of the Metcalf Foundation’s Inclusive Local Economies program, we were able to forge important partnerships with other local organizations working to improve food security in unique ways. Through these partnerships, we launched three incredible initiatives – we began delivering food to local child care centres, we launched the Leadership In Logistics skills development program, and we piloted community-oriented food production system. Through the last project, we successfully brought an affordable, nutritious dry soup mix to our local community.

With funding secured we were able to team up with FoodShare and Food Starter, to create a dry soup mix that promotes access to affordable, delicious and nutritious food for all.

To get started, North York Harvest asked our agencies what types of food were most needed and hardest to supply for the clients.

Within the agencies, there was a need for a hearty, vegetarian soup made with beans and rice that was nutritious but also easy to prepare. For certain dietary needs, it was also important that the soup was low in sodium but still flavourful without being spicy.

Together through our partnerships, we made a unique Moroccan Lentil Soup. It was sold in FoodShare’s Good Food Boxes and the Grab Some Good pop-up markets operating on various TTC subway platforms. And what is even better is for every soup sold… another soup goes on the shelf for someone using the food bank!

It was a hit!

To prepare the soup mix, we teamed up with the Experiential Learning program at York Humber High School. The students in this program have special needs and are encouraged to learn life skills through hands on training and real life experience. Each week the students would join Vanessa Yu from caterToronto at Food Starter to prepare several bags of soup that would be given to our community.

When I met the kids I asked what their favourite part of making the soup was and they seemed to all enjoy sealing up the soup packages the most! They even took soup home to cook and enjoy with their families.

The kids’ teacher, Carmi, says ‘We were so fortunate to have had the opportunity for some of our students to participate in a meaningful real work experience with the NYHFB. Students really enjoyed the experience and gained valuable employability skills while increasing their self-esteem. It was wonderful to watch them learn new skills and progress each week. We all look forward to continuing our partnership with the NYHFB and thank them for all their support over the last few months.’

We are so excited to move forward with this project and to be able to share this soup with you!

Thank you to all of you that made this happen:

Metcalf Foundation
FoodShare
Food Starter
York Humber Students: Gowie, Alan, Amara & Matthew
York Humber Teachers: Carmy, Angie & Abddanahi
Vanessa from CaterToronto
Chef Rob Heidenreich from Saha Cuisine (for developing the recipe)
Brandcheck (packaging)
The Test Kitchen (nutritional labelling)
KBrown Design (label design)
Blakes Law Firm (regulatory requirements to ensure that we complied with labelling and food safety regulations)
And YOU for helping us make this dream a reality!!!

The Product – Moroccan-Style Red Lentil Soup

Combination of red lentils, brown rice and five different spices

Low in calories, high in fibre and a source of protein

No added sugar, salt, flavours, colours or preservatives

Easy to prepare – just add water and simmer for 40 minutes

Delicious on its own, or scalable to individual dietary needs – a great base for added meats, vegetables, salt or spices to taste

Sold by FoodShare and distributed to food banks by North York Harvest Food Bank — promotes access to affordable, delicious and nutritious food for all

Join the conversation – we’d love to know your thoughts! Leave a comment below.

What’s in Store for 2016?
January 1, 2016 8:00 am Comments Off on What’s in Store for 2016?
New Year’s resolutions are very common to make at this time of year. I have definitely thought of a couple for myself, and it has probably crossed your mind as well. Most of the popular resolutions are to get out of debt, volunteer more, get fit, quit smoking or save money.

As a new member of the North York Harvest family, I was curious about our New Year’s Resolutions for a city where no one goes hungry. I sat down with our Executive Director, Ryan Noble, to chat about what is in store for North York Harvest Food Bank in 2016. These are some of the main things we will be partnering with our donors, community and agencies in 2016
Find a new home for the Lawrence Heights Food Bank

Our Lawrence Heights Community Food Bank, used to be at our old location in Lawrence Heights. We were unable to have the food bank come with us to 116 Industry Street. It needed to stay in that area to provide service to the many clients who relied on it for food support. With space in our old neighborhood difficult to find, we were able to find a home nearby that promised to be a good solution. Yet two major issues that our food bank clients face is the cost of transportation and disability. The majority of the 2,000 clients who access this food bank living in Lawrence Heights found it difficult to get there. We quickly recognized that to ensure clients would be able to access the food bank it would need to move back to the Lawrence Heights community. With the support of our staff, volunteer leaders and the Lawrence Heights community, we have been working on a solution that would provide us with an accessible space right back in the community. With the continued support of donors like you and our dedicated community, our goal is to move back within the next 6 months without interrupting service. We want to ensure that in the cold winter months ahead, everyone will be able to access the food they need.

See that the Poverty Reduction Strategy is Implemented

Recently the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) was passed during a Toronto city council meeting. The PRS aims to eliminate poverty in Toronto by 2035 with implementations starting in 2016. The goal is to address immediate needs such as housing, transportation and food insecurity. NYH has been a big supporter of this strategy since day one and we would like to see it take shape. The only issue now is what funding will be available for this plan.

What does North York Harvest want to see addressed as soon as possible? Public space for food programming. Many people living in poverty do not have access to healthy food because of where they live. We want to be able to provide our programs in more communities, but there is a lack of public space for us to run our programs (like our issue with Lawrence Heights).

The PRS recommends increasing the number of emergency food programs such as food banks in neighbourhoods that have food insecurity and poor food access.

This would significantly help us serve over 13,000 people each month and would increase access to these programs for our clients. Click here to find out more about the Poverty Reduction Strategy.

Increase our Industrial Partnership with The Learning Enrichment Foundation (LEF)

When we moved into our new home at 116 Industry St, one of the things we were most excited about was the potential for partnerships with many of the great organizations also located here. One collaboration that we were able to implement right away was allowing students working on their forklift-driving license to use our forklifts and warehouse. This has helped them complete their training in a live warehouse thus building real work experience. As we enter 2016, we have some plans to see that partnership expand. We’re hoping to create an apprentice program for on the job training while supporting our warehouse distribution. This will ensure we can move more food through our warehouse to the clients who need it.

Increase our Food Purchasing Program

In an effort to make sure that our community has enough healthy food to eat, we have further developed our food purchasing program into the Build a Hamper Program. The goal of this program is to take our food hampers to the next level by adding more fresh and healthy food. Many of our food items come through donations from food drives or corporate donations and consist of non-perishable foods. We would like to increase our food purchasing budget so we can provide more items such as fresh vegetables, dairy, eggs, meat and milk to ensure a more balanced meal for those that access our food banks. If you would like to learn more about our Build A Hamper program, click here.

We are definitely looking forward to achieving these goals in 2016! What are your New Year’s Resolutions?

Keep in Touch this Year!!
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