Comments Off on A Message from Executive Director Ryan Noble
A Message from Executive Director Ryan Noble
I am sometimes asked about how things are going at North York Harvest. It seems like a simple question, but I struggle to answer it properly. If you follow our regular communications you already know that this has been one of the most difficult years we, and food banks all across Canada, have ever faced.
Exceptionally high demand is placing enormous pressure on the organization and our partner agencies. There never seems to be enough to meet the challenge.
But that’s not the whole story. I have the privilege of seeing the other side of our food bank: The thousands and thousands of donors, volunteers, partners and supporters who make up North York Harvest. Each of them does something tangible and meaningful about the crisis we face. These are the acts that don’t always make the headlines, but when I think about them, it fills me with an overwhelming sense of hope.
The term food bank is misleading. It implies that there are deposits and withdrawals. That may be technically true, but is much too simple. When I look around our food bank, I see people that care about each other and that get and give so much, whether they receive food, donate it or distribute it.
When we’re at our best, all people here build a sense of themselves, a stronger connection to their community, and relationships that often last for years. It is an honour to be a part of that.
As the year comes to an end, I want to thank everybody who makes North York Harvest Food Bank the organization we are. Together I know that we can reach our vision of a community where everyone can meet their food needs.
I wish you a joyful holiday season and a bright start to a healthy and prosperous New Year.
Ryan Noble
Executive Director
North York Harvest Food Bank
Once, Tammy was a client who turned to North York Harvest Food Bank when she had nowhere else to go.
Today, after graduating from the Leadership in Logistics (LIL) program, she is a line manager at North York Harvest, and a cherished mentor to our LIL students. Tammy now helps to guide students to chase after their own success and stability, just like she once did. Read her story below.
I’ve been on my own, and often homeless, since I was 13 years old.
As you can imagine, I’ve been through some really, really, tough times. Times when I didn’t know where my next meal would come from.
Times when I went without food just so my kids could eat. Times when I almost lost hope entirely. During those years, I often turned to the food bank — because I had no other place to go.
What I found was a community that refused to let me fall through the cracks. North York Harvest Food Bank made sure I could put food on the table for myself and my kids when we needed it most.
When my fridge and cupboards were empty week after week, I came up with a painful strategy. I ate on Mondays, then went without on Tuesday and Wednesday, so my kids would have enough. By Thursday, I’d eat again just to keep going.
I knew something had to change — for their sake and mine. That’s when I discovered North York Harvest’s job-training program. It wasn’t easy. It took courage, determination, and a lot of hard work. I can tell you that getting into that program was the beginning of my life turning around.
Today, I’m proud to say I work at North York Harvest Food Bank as a line manager in their warehouse. I get to help ensure that 30,000 people, who are in situations like I was, can access the food they need with dignity.
Even more meaningful for me — I am now the instructor for the same training program that helped me rebuild my own life.
Every day, I try to show people what I once needed to hear: You are not alone, and we will not give up on you.
A year ago, the City of Toronto declared food insecurity an emergency, but nothing has changed except the lines at the food bank are longer. 1 in 10 Torontonians rely on food banks and heartbreakingly, 1 in 4 of them is a child!
I’m asking you to help another family like mine, going through one of the hardest moments of their lives.
Your gift this holiday season will provide food and other essential supports to children and families, living right here in our neighbourhood.
Until December 31st, you can make 2X the difference for neighbours facing food insecurity, thanks to a match from the Schulich Foundation.
2025 was a year of many firsts for North York Harvest Food Bank. Faced with record-breaking food insecurity and poverty year after year, our organization continues to build on our commitment to being more than a food bank, and more than a neighbour’s last resort.
It was hard to narrow it down, but here are the Top 10 Moments at North York Harvest in 2025 — each one made possible by all of us working together to make our community a better place for everyone.
1. Improved our Leadership in Logistics Program
We know full-time employment is a springboard to stability, but it’s often not the end of the story. That’s why, starting this year, graduates of our Leadership in Logistics programhad the opportunity to continue working with North York Harvest to build on their success using the Sustainable Livelihood Model.
This model helps identify other areas, including health and basic needs that require additional support in order for people to thrive in our community.
Our staff will work with graduates to offer support with referrals and resources including healthcare services, housing, and more.
2. 40 Years of North York Harvest Food Bank
It started with our founder Loren at a Blue Jays Game asking a simple question: What happens to all the hot dogs that don’t get sold?
From that question sprang an idea: That everyone in our community should be able to meet their food needs. Over 40 years, countless individuals would join together to build on that mission because they saw hunger in their community and decided to do something about it.
This year North York Harvest Food Bank turned 40, and we celebrated in our brand new space at 4048 Chesswood Dr., with over 1,000 past and present staff, volunteers, donors, and community members stopping by to commemorate the day!
3. We Launched Our Most Ambitious Campaign Yet
North York Harvest Food Bank launched Crisis to Catalyst: A $6 million capital campaign to build a new 30,000+ square-foot Community Food Hub that will redefine what a food bank can be, and ignite a powerful shift in how we address food insecurity.
4. Get Out the Vote!
There are many barriers stopping people from making it to the ballot box, from not having a fixed address, to not having enough money for transportation to the polls.
Over 600 people attended, with free transportation taking attendees to the polls to cast their vote. We also shuttled over 100 clients from our Community Food Spaces to the polls, and ensured no one was turned away from exercising their right to vote.
5. Our Community Fought for Change, and Won!
Two months after the City of Toronto declared a food insecurity emergency in Toronto, we collected hundreds of petition signatures, sent dozens of letters and gave deputations to urge every City Councillor to pass a city budget that put people first.
On the day of the Toronto City budget deliberation, we brought 60+ people from our community food spaces and joined with other community organizations to rally outside City Hall. Afterwards we hand-delivered our petitions to elected officials, calling for:
This year our Albion Food Spacepartnered with a mobile clothing bank and we launched our first green market at this space, bringing affordable produce to clients through our social enterprise, FoodReach, all summer long!
Thanks to a grant from Toronto Public Library, we were able to sell fresh fruits and vegetables about 40% cheaper than the grocery store, improving food access for our Rexdale community.
7. Partner Agency Conference
This summer we held a conference with our network of partner agencies and drop-in meal programs supported through Creating Health Plus that became a powerful day of community, learning, and shared purpose.
It was an opportunity to connect with one another through discussions and workshops around food access, advocacy, and community development.
8. Providing More Fresh Food
As grocery store prices continued to soar in 2025, fresh foods became even more out of reach for many of our clients.
Thanks to some incredible community partners, this year fresh produce and milk became two of our Top 3 most-distributed items! As of November 2025, we have provided more than 165,000 lbs. Of nourishing milk to our clients — 15% more than last year!
With the expansion of the Student Nutrition Program in Toronto, FoodReach grew from providing healthy food to 38 schools, up to 81! To support this growth, we expanded our infrastructure with a new truck, and two new staff.
As FoodReach continues to grow, we’re purchasing more food, which supports local businesses and creates employment opportunities, helping to keep money and jobs in our community. The revenue from FoodReach also supports North York Harvest’s operations; creating a long-term food solution for our sector and building community wealth!
10. Notice North York
Poverty and hunger in North York have gone unnoticed, underfunded, and underestimated for too long. This year, we launched NOTICE: A community-powered movement fighting inequality and building lasting solutions to hunger and poverty. Supported by North York Harvest Food Bank, NOTICE supporters have a collective voice that can’t be ignored.
Do you know about North York Harvest’s social enterprise,FoodReach?
FoodReach lowers food costs for nonprofits, improves food access for thousands of Torontonians, supports local producers, and generates sustainable revenue to strengthen North York Harvest’s mission.
By pooling the collective buying power of hundreds of schools, shelters, and community organizations, FoodReach purchases nutritious food in bulk from local suppliers and passes those savings directly to the frontline programs feeding our city.
Watch this video to learn all about the impact of FoodReach!
The affordability crisis continues to push our city and our sector to the breaking point.
But we have an incredible community of people who see this crisis every day and take meaningful action to make a difference.
Supporters like you who refuse to accept 30,000 people in their community don’t have enough food for themselves and their families every month.
Together we are working to meet the immediate needs of our community today, while fighting the root causes of food insecurity to build a stronger, more equitable tomorrow.
From March-August 2025 we:
Distributed 1.2 million lbs. of food across our network
Comments Off on Our community put Queen’s Park on NOTICE!
The cost of living is skyrocketing out of control while wages and social supports fall far behind – trapping more people in poverty every day.
Our community decided they weren’t going to go unnoticed any longer.
On Thursday, October 23, hundreds of people from food banks, drop-in centres, meal programs, community organizations, and disability justice and housing advocates took over Queen’s Park to demand a rent freeze, raising the minimum wage, and higher social assistance rates.
“People like me get notices all the time. Notice of late payment, notice of arrears, notice of layoff, notice of eviction — even notice of insufficient funds when we try to pay our groceries” says Goldie, a long-time client and supporter of our Lawrence Heights Food Space.
“But instead of fixing the cracks in the system that too many of us are falling through, our government has allowed them to grow even bigger. So we put them on notice: We won’t be ignored any longer.”
Eight buses from across the GTHA, including from each of our Community Food Spaces, brought hundreds of individuals to the doorstep of our decisionmakers to have their voices heard.
A life-size installation of the board game Snakes and Broken Ladders was displayed before the Legislative Assembly, with each square representing a crack in a broken system.
North York Harvest Food Bank supports 30,000 food bank clients per month. We provide all the numbers and data on food insecurity through our annual Who’s Hungry Report, but we wanted to help create space for the people behind those numbers, whose voices, too often, go unnoticed.
Fight for a city for all of us. Join North York’s movement to put the drivers of hunger, inequality, and unaffordability on notice. Be part of a collective movement that won’t be ignored. Join noticenorthyork.ca.
Queen’s Park ON NOTICE was co-organized by North York Harvest Food Bank, ACORN Ontario, Campaign for Adequate Welfare and Disability Benefits, DJNO, Fair Rent Ontario, FMTA, Income Security Advocacy Centre, Justice For Workers, ODSP Action Coalition, Raise the Rates Coalition, Social Planning Toronto, York South-Weston Tenant Union, and the Weston King-Mount Dennis Neighbourhood Centre.
Comments Off on Food for Thought: How local procurement builds community wealth
Food for Thought: How local procurement builds community wealth
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, perspectives, and lessons learned as we work toward our vision of a community where all members are able to meet their food needs.
Written by Lianne Holland, Senior Manager of Social Enterprise and Community Wealth
When meeting with first-time FoodReach customers, I’m often asked, “How is it that you get the cheapest prices on food?”
The short answer is, we don’t.
Because FoodReach is a non-profit food supplier to the community food sector, there tends to be an expectation that we will sell food at bargain-basement pricing. But we take a different approach to procurement.
Consider for a moment the food in your fridge
Is it filled with food that nourishes you?
Does it meet your cultural and dietary preferences?
Is the food fresh?
Did you buy it from a store you can rely on to stock what you need?
Can you get similar foods cheaper elsewhere, but you’re more concerned with quality over price?
Where did it come from?
These are all of the same questions we ask ourselves when we’re building FoodReach’s catalogue. We want to leverage economies of scale to lower food costs for our customers, and we want to create a long-term food solution.
Part of creating a long-term food solution is sourcing quality, nourishing, culturally relevant food from reliable suppliers we can count on, so our sector can count on us.
But how can we make our impact even greater? That’s where our Community Wealth Building mindset comes in. We’ve been focusing a lot on the question: “Where does the food come from?”
At any given time, FoodReach’s catalogue sells a minimum of 50% locally sourced products. This fluctuates to a higher number seasonally as a result of the supply and demand of produce. The more we’re procuring products from the local economy, the more we’re strengthening our community because it’s creating jobs.
Sourcing locally also makes our supply chain more reliable, and less susceptible to disruptions like we are seeing with this year’s tariffs, and back in 2020/2021 with the pandemic.
And as we make big plans for our future Community Food Hub, we’re looking at how we leverage our resources further to strengthen and support local, small businesses by supplying warehouse space and connections to a consistent demand from our customers.
When we look back in our fridges, not only are we nourishing ourselves, every purchasing choice we’re making is positively impacting other people’s lives so they can nourish themselves, too.
Comments Off on Welcome to Albion Library Community Food Space
Albion Library Community Food Space in Photos
Albion is our smallest Community Food Space—but it still has a big impact in the Rexdale community!
During the pandemic in 2020, many food banks shut down to maintain public-health protocols. Toronto Public Library (TPL) stepped up to ensure people could still get food support by setting up outdoor food banks across 9 TPL locations.
North York Harvest Food Bank worked with TPL to open a distribution site in the parking lot of Albion Public Library. The pandemic restrictions eased, but the need in the community soared as the affordability crisis worsened.
Today, we continue to partner with TPL to run our Albion food space out of two shipping containers, serving 2,400 client visits every month.
Despite its size, Albion is an important hub of support and community connection.
Our Community
We hold two community food programs every week, serving individuals and families in the Rexdale area.
Our Albion food space serves a large number of seniors, newcomers, and single-parent families.
31% of clients are children and youth
49% of clients are from 1-2 person households
In the past 6 months, 25% of clients have been new
Meet Chashma!
Chashma is the new Food Space Manager of Albion, but she’s been working with North York Harvest since 2023, when she started as a volunteer.
“Something I’m happy to see us do as an organization is implement our own clients as ambassadors for our Albion Food Space to support the community engagement work we do,” she says. “I think a key part in our mission, and what we are fighting for, can only be pushed forward by the voices of our own clients and community members.
“I am happy to learn how important this influence is at North York Harvest, and happy to be a part of our mission.”
Community Partnerships
FoodieFest
Every June North York Harvest participates in Rexdale Community Health Centre’s Foodie Fest, which draws hundreds to the Albion Library for live entertainment, information on community resources, and, of course, food.
We purchase fresh produce through our social enterprise FoodReach and distribute it to our community, which has become a huge hit! From You to Them
Clothing is a big need among our community members, but taking transit to a clothing bank can be a barrier for clients. This year we’re grateful to partner with From You to Them – a mobile clothing bank that comes to Albion once a month.
The Career Foundation
The Career Foundation joins us in the summer to help reduce barriers to employment in our community. Every week, they’re onsite to provide information on free workshops, resources, and employment opportunities.
Summer Green Market
For the first time this year, we launched a green market at Albion to make healthy food more affordable for everyone!
Similar to the green markets at our Bathurst-Finch and Lawrence Heights food spaces, we order fresh produce from FoodReach and then sell it at cost to our community.
Thanks to a generous grant from Toronto Public Library, we were able to lower food costs even further.
On average, our Albion community paid 40% less for fruits and veggies than they would at the grocery store!
Meet Leila!
Leila (left) is a placement student from Northern College in Timmins, and she’s been volunteering with us since the beginning of September.
“Working at North York Harvest Food Bank has been nothing short of incredible, I mean that from the bottom of my heart,” she says.
“It’s been fulfilling, challenging, it’s been enlightening … food insecurity does not discriminate, that’s something that has been a huge eye opener for me since I started working here – it could impact any one of us.”
Thank you for joining us at Albion Library Community Food Space!
And thank you to our donors, community partners, staff, and volunteers who help make this critical work possible every day.
Together we are working toward our vision of a community where all members are able to meet their food needs.
