Tag Archive: poverty

  1. Agency Spotlight: Meet Society for the Living!

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    Meet Society for the Living!

    Since she was a little girl, Joyce has been working alongside her mother and three siblings at Society for the Living, a food bank and partner agency of North York Harvest Food Bank.

    “I don’t know how many people get to work alongside their family and give back to their community. It’s something that’s really special because at the same time we’re doing this work, we get to connect as a family and connect with our community,” Joyce says. 

    Joyce works with her mother, known in the community as sister Vee, and siblings Aisha, Sedem, and Immanuel.

    Since 1998 Society for the Living has been serving the North York community, with an emphasis on providing culturally meaningful food and a welcoming space for clients to connect with one another.

    For 25 years Society called 274 Eddystone Ave. home. But during the pandemic, their rent was raised by 200% and they had to find a new space — at a time when the need in the community was increasing rapidly.

    Today, Society operates out of shipping containers at two different sites:  Jane and Shepherd, and Oakdale, serving 900 client visits each month.

    “It was really sad for us to lose that space and we hope to one day be able to have a space to call our own with our community to connect and shareA father and daughter stand outside at a farm holding fresh vegetables. food,” Joyce says.

    For now they are continuing to build community however they can, including through a farm project where they grow and harvest fresh food to serve at their programs. Clients have a say in the kinds of produce that is grown and some clients also volunteer to help on the farm.

    “It’s very grounding being outside in fresh air with each other and planting, growing, and harvesting food together. It’s really beautiful to see that,” Joyce says.

    The next generation in the family are already helping out at the food bank, whether by cleaning up, setting up or packing boxes.

    “Like me, they’re learning at a very young age that there’s a need in the community and each of us has the opportunity to give back,” Joyce says.

    Learn more about Society for the Living at https://www.societyforthelivingfoodbank.com/

  2. North York Harvest Food Bank needs a new home

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    NYH needs a new home to nourish our community for years to come!

    Sadly, North York Harvest Food Bank needs to find a new home.

    With more than 1 in 10 Torontonians turning to a food bank last year, we have outgrown our space. What was once equipped to serve our community is failing as the demand for emergency food assistance has outpaced the constraints of our warehouse.

    At North York Harvest, we are facing daily challenges in our current space due to structural and capacity issues that are hindering our ability to get nourishing food to those who need it most.

    • Structural Issues: The warehouse roof leaks, creating unsafe conditions and causing damage to critical food supplies.
    • Cold Storage Deficiencies: There is inadequate cold storage, making it impossible to properly store and distribute enough perishable items like milk, cheese, eggs, fruits, vegetables, and proteins.
    • Dry Storage Shortages: A lack of sufficient dry storage limits the ability to accept and efficiently distribute donated goods, further complicating operations.
    • Operational Impact: These challenges are slowing food distribution at a time when the citywide need has reached alarming levels—food banks in Toronto saw 3.49 million visits in 2024, a staggering increase from 935,000 visits in 2019.

    Our warehouse is critical to our operations. Not only for our ability to serve nearly 30,000 client visits each month, but also as a hub of innovation, education, and community care, including:

    Three people in a warehouse hold a box and smile for the camera.

    FoodReach: Our warehouse is the distribution centre for our social enterprise, FoodReach, which supports public and non-profit organizations, including schools and other food banks, by providing food at affordable prices for programs across Ontario.

    Leadership in Logistics: Our employment and training program utilizes our warehouse as a training ground to provide practical experience and training in warehousing and logistics. Successful graduates are offered full-time jobs with benefits at Canadian Tire. Through this program, we can fight unemployment and underemployment in our communities and provide pathways to financial independence.

    Sort and Learn workshops: Every year we host workshops for corporate and community groups to connect with their local food bank by learningVolunteers from Jazwares stand in a warehouse with a North York Harvest Food Bank sign that says how much food they sorted for their community. about what we do, the underlying causes of food insecurity, and how we can work together toward long-term solutions.

    Our lease is up in 2026 and we are feeling increasing pressure to secure an affordable space in time.

    With the City of Toronto joining Kingston and Mississauga in declaring food insecurity an emergency, we are calling on the City to provide immediate funding to help us build a safe, efficient warehouse that can handle the growing demand for food assistance.

    Read our full statement here

  3. Busting food bank myths with Feed Ontario!

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    Busting food bank myths with Feed Ontario!

    “Why don’t food bank users just get a job?”

    “If we increase social assistance, won’t that make people not want to work?”

    Food banks have been getting a lot of media attention due to the overwhelming demand for emergency food support. Unfortunately, a lot of misinformation is also being spread about what is causing this crisis.

    In December, Feed Ontario hosted a panel discussion to bust some of these myths and misconceptions in our sector. We joined colleagues from food banks across the province to field questions pertaining to our work and the people who access our services.

    Chiara Padovani, North York Harvest’s Senior Specialist, Advocacy and Community Engagement, joined the panel to tackle questions from Ontarians about who is really causing the housing crisis, the realities of living on social assistance, and the solutions desperately needed to reduce food bank use.

    Watch the full panel below

    Thank you to Feed Ontario for having us and thanks to our fellow panelists:
    Myles Vanni – Inn of the Good Shepherd, Sarnia
    June Muir – UHC -Hub of Opportunities, Windsor
    Robbie Donaldson – Salvation Army – New Liskeard

  4. Food for Thought: Food banks need solutions, not scapegoats

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    Food banks need solutions, not scapegoats

    In our Food for Thought series, individuals within North York Harvest Food Bank will share their experience in matters pertaining to food insecurity and poverty. This series will share ideas, lessons learned, and challenge misconceptions as we work toward our vision of a community where all members are able to meet their food needs.

    Written by Chiara Padovani; Senior Specialist, Advocacy and Community Engagement

    I’ve been a food bank worker at North York Harvest for almost a decade. I have dedicated my life’s work to ensuring people in my community have enough food to eat: a basic human right that is needed in order for people to stay alive.  I’m glad the crisis in food banks is getting attention, but I’d like to set the record straight.

    Yes, there is a crisis in our food banks. Yes, there’s an affordability crisis in our city. But no, international students or immigrants are not to blame.  Everyday, food banks encounter heartbreaking stories of people who through no fault of their own cannot manage to keep themselves and their families fed.  They’re battling an impossible system that bears down on them every day with no reprieve. And every day I have to contend with the fact that I will never be able to fully solve the problems that they’re dealing with, I can only offer some food support so that they don’t go hungry.

    Two months ago I met an international student, *Sharla, who came to our food bank for the first time and she was panicked. She said she had to cut

    At North York Harvest's Community Advocacy Group town hall, a client attaches a Post-It note with a number ranking the importance of newcomer and immigration supports.the hours she was working in half because of a new immigration policy limiting how many hours international students can work. Suddenly out of nowhere, she had to survive on half her income and didn’t know how she could afford to pay the rent. In the same breath she asked me about volunteering at the food bank because now she can’t work full time.

    These are the people we’re told are taking advantage of our food banks? Or causing the affordability crisis? Give me a break. It’s scapegoating, and we don’t have to buy it.  I will not sit silently while the work that I have been dedicating my life to has been weaponized to push an anti-immigrant and xenophobic narrative that does nothing to serve regular people who are struggling day to day, and only serves as a distraction from a broken economic system. 

    In fact, Sharla’s story sounds a lot like every other person’s story who comes through our doors whether they were born in Canada or not. 

    Here’s the truth: the affordability crisis we’re facing in Toronto and across the country has nothing to do with what country your neighbour, classmate or coworker was born in – and believing it does, is just a distraction from the real problem. 

    The number one reason people come to food banks is because they can’t afford their rent. Sharla isn’t raising your rent – your landlord is, and the provincial government isn’t just letting them get away with it, they’re making it easier by removing rent controls. 

    The largest group of new food bank clients are workers, which means even if you’re working full time, you still can’t afford the groceries you need. Sharla doesn’t cut your hours or pay you a wage you can’t afford to live on – your employer does, and the provincial government is incentivizing them to do so by refusing to legislate equal pay for part-time, casual, contract or temporary work. 

    Scapegoating immigrants, international students, migrants and refugees isn’t just a harmful distraction from the real problem, it also gets us further and further away from the solutions we actually need.  Newcomers like Sharla are not the reason your rent is unaffordable, that the company you work for is extracting as much profit as they can without compensating you fairly, that grocery prices are too high, that formerly stable well-paying jobs are being replaced with temp labour. This is our fault, not theirs. We have enabled this system to thrive and to push our communities to the brink.

    Because instead of implementing rent control to stabilize skyrocketing rents or implementing equal pay legislation to curb the rise of low-wage, precarious work – the kind of things that would help everyone and reduce the need for food banks in the first place – we’re being sold that the solution to our problem is just making life more difficult for Sharla? 

    I don’t buy it, and you shouldn’t either. Sharla deserves better than this, and so do we.

    *Name changed to protect client privacy

  5. Community Advocacy Group: Fighting poverty from the ground up!

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    Community Advocacy Group: Fighting poverty from the ground up!

    What do you think is the most important issue leading to food bank use? What could help solve that issue? 

    These were the questions we’ve been asking people who come to our food banks over the summer. We wanted to hear about the biggest challenges leading to food insecurity in our community from the people living it – and we wanted to hear what they think should be done about it too. 

    Over the past four months, hundreds of people shared their experiences at our local food banks, and over a hundred people attended one of five workshops to dive deeper into the issues.

    Here’s what we learned: 

    • Housing and the cost of rent was consistently the biggest challenge in people’s lives. This is consistent with our research at NYHFB that shows that once people pay their rent they have very little – if any at all – to spend on food and other necessities. 
    • Food prices, wages, employment, social assistance rates and pensions were among the other top issues prevalent in people’s lives. 

    But we didn’t just discuss the challenges. We also talked about solutions and what we can do to make those solutions a reality, and that’s where things got really exciting. Despite all the challenges our community is facing, people are abundantly clear: not only are we ready for change but we’re ready to take action to make it happen! 

    That’s how our Community Action Group got started — a NYHFB Advocacy Group aimed at tackling the root causes of poverty and hunger from the ground up. Now, we’re getting ready to take action for real change and long-term solutions for our community.  Together we’ll be fighting for rent control, affordable housing and food prices, fair wages, increased social assistance rates and more!

    Interested in joining us? Contact pamela@northyorkharvest.com!

    Three adults and a child sit around a table. The adults are engaged in a lively discussion.

  6. North York Harvest Partners with Canadian Tire to Expand Leadership in Logistics Program

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    North York Harvest Food Bank Partners with Canadian Tire Corporation to Expand Leadership in Logistics Program

    North York Harvest Food Bank is excited to announce its partnership with Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC) on the Leadership in Logistics (LIL) training program. Together we are providing innovative training and employment opportunities to those struggling with food insecurity.

    The LIL program, developed at North York Harvest, is a four-week paid internship that equips participants with essential skills in warehouse logistics, inventory management and forklift operations, empowering them to secure stable jobs.

    By creating pathways to sustainable employment, the program reduces food bank reliance and drives lasting, systemic change in the community.

    “Toronto is facing an unprecedented crisis of affordability, poverty, and food insecurity. North York Harvest is seeing record levels of food bank usage,” says North York Harvest Executive Director Ryan Noble.

    “We understand that free food is only a temporary fix and that traditional charitable models fall short of solving prolonged food insecurity. We have consistently advocated for a holistic approach to supporting individuals struggling with poverty towards truly sustainable livelihoods.”

    Since its launch in 2023, more than 80% of participants have successfully completed the program and have secured full-time employment.

    “The program has impacted my life so well,” recent graduate Moses says. “I had nowhere to start from, I was new here and had no hope. Even some people I met when I came here, they have not yet found work, so for me I got so lucky with the program and I feel so blessed.”

    This partnership demonstrates how a charity and a for-profit business can work together to foster lasting and sustainable change in our community. Read the full press release here.

  7. Flood protection funding is a community victory!

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    Flood protection funding is a community victory!

    On July 16, North York Harvest Food Bank was hit hard by a devastating flood that resulted in a power outage, infrastructure damage, and $20,000 of spoiled food.

    Our community has faced terrible floods before, and we knew it wasn’t if, but when it would happen again.

    Several of our partner agencies and countless community members were also reeling from the effects: displaced from their homes, property damage, loss of essential food supplies and services, and more.

    After the flood, North York Harvest Food Bank, Youth Without Shelter, Room to Grow Food Bank, the Mount Dennis Community Association, and the Black Creek

    A crowd of people including Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh listens as North York Harvest Executive Director Ryan Noble gives a tour of the facility

    Alliance joined together to discuss the effects of the flood, and how we could move collaboratively toward solutions.

    Our discussions emphasized the urgent support needed from the government to alleviate the strain on our non-profits and our community.

    We were joined by Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who met with community members affected by the flood, amplified our concerns and supported our call for long-term solutions in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

    On August 30 an investment of $323-million from the City of Toronto and the federal government was announced to bolster the Rockcliffe-Smythe area against future flooding!

    A man stands and gives a presentation during a community discussion at North York Harvest Food Bank with a whiteboard in the background covered in notes.“This is the power of advocacy and community,” says Ryan Noble, Executive Director of North York Harvest Food Bank. “When we come together and fight for our community, we win. When we join our voices together and put pressure on the government to notice, it can work.

    “We’re proud to have stood with our partners and neighbours who have been raising alarm bells about this issue for years, and we’re hopeful it will bring relief for our community.”

    Several people stand in front of a backdrop with the North York Harvest Food Bank logo, smiling for a group picture.

  8. How Our Community Came Together During Disaster

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    How our community came together during disaster

    On July 16, a tremendous rainfall caused mass flooding and power outages across Toronto, and North York Harvest Food Bank got hit, hard.

    Summer is always a challenging time for food banks. North York Harvest saw the highest number of client visits on record in May, and for weeks had been running critically low on essential foods like pasta and canned fish. In reality, we were already in crisis mode. Then the flood happened.

    Our loading bays were flooded, our freezer broke, one of our delivery trucks was damaged, and water poured into the warehouse.

     

    On top of the infrastructure damage from the flood and power outage, about $20,000 worth of milk, yogurt and other high quality foods were spoiled. These are highly valued products, which our clients often can’t afford to buy for themselves and their families.

    The effects of this damage rippled outwards to our community. As a result, we weren’t able to provide as much food to our community food spaces and the dozens of agencies we support. Some of our partner agencies were also impacted, losing large amounts of inventory and facing significant damage to their food spaces.

    Community Champions

    We put out an urgent call for help, but we could not have imagined the incredible response from our community!

    We were in a crisis, but we weren’t alone. Individuals, community groups, local businesses, and organizations all showed up to help North York Harvest get back on its feet. Our phones were ringing off the hook; everyone was asking how they could help.

    Immediately, the generosity of our supporters was put into action: Shelves, cupboards and fridges were refilled to ensure our clients could access the food they need.

    This couldn’t have happened at a worse time, but this situation reminded us how incredible and compassionate our community is.

    After the flood

    Thanks to our generous supporters, we have been able to repair the delivery truck and get it back on the road. Unfortunately, multiple attempts at repairing the freezer have been unsuccessful. There is a temporary fix in place to keep it operational for now, but it will need to be replaced – and soon.

    The reality is North York Harvest Food Bank has outgrown its current warehouse. Our space and equipment were not designed to meet the demands of the growing number of individuals who rely on our services.

    Given that our warehouse serves as the main distribution site for four community food spaces and hundreds of food programs, maintaining the integrity of our supply chain is crucial. To reduce the risk of another breakdown, we are looking at offsite cold storage space as a contingency.

    “I think this shows just how fragile the network of food banks really is to deal with the crisis that we’re seeing,” says Ryan Noble, Executive Director of North York Harvest Food Bank. “This flood was an acute shock, but we’ve been dealing with a chronic crisis of food insecurity and poverty in this city for years.”

    Thank you to everyone for the support during this challenging time, and for joining with North York Harvest as we work toward our vision of a community where all members can meet their food needs.