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!
Cheers to another amazing year and onto the next!
Guest blog by Shirah Stern, Development Associate Corporate Giving
Did you know that there are free toy lending libraries in North York? Or literacy programs to prepare children for school? I sure didn’t before I went to visit Weston Area Emergency Services (WAES). WAES is a food bank that falls under the NYH umbrella offering emergency food hampers to people in need. It was there I met volunteer Marlene Jones. And she sure taught me a lot about community services I didn’t even know existed!
Marlene has been volunteering with WAES for almost a year now. After retiring, Marlene wanted to give back because she personally felt grateful for the education and career that she has had in her life. Her passion for health and nutrition naturally led her to a volunteer program that helps people in her neighbourhood access the food they need. “Having access to good food is so important for family health,” she told me. “It’s also important that members of our communities are aware of programs to support people regardless of their personal income or background. Especially if they have kids.”
With four young children, I often wonder why kids don’t come with a manual. We all want to be the best parent that we can and these free resources are a huge helping hand for many that don’t have a ready support network.
As a retired public health nurse, Marlene informs clients of nearby programs that they didn’t know they had access to. These range from parenting programs and educational tutoring to newcomer workshops and recreational activities. And these are available for anyone in the city. Because Marlene shares her knowledge, these families know where they can go to make their lives just a little bit easier.
Marlene shared the joy she feels being able to assistant clients with their food needs and help them get other supports they need. Young, single mothers come to the food bank to put food in their bellies, and walk out with information about summer camp their children can attend. A man struggling with being laid off from work will come in to get extra items for dinner and leave with the number of a service to help him update his resume. There are so many other examples of people in your neighbourhood that benefit from these programs.
Referral services and connections are part of what makes food banks so important to our community. I have worked at NYH for many years and I didn’t even know that some of these programs were available (toy lending library??!!). And working in the social service sector, if I wasn’t aware, I can imagine many other families in our city that could really use these services aren’t aware of them either. Sharing is caring.
I really admire the generosity and thoughtfulness of Marlene and other volunteers at WAES – they truly demonstrate the value of volunteering and helping others in the community. “It takes a village to raise a child,” share Marlene. And she enjoys being a part of it.
Families in our city are accessing programs that are helpful because of connections made in the food bank. It is because of you that we are able to make connections like this happen. Thank you for being part of our village.
Each day many volunteers put their time and heart into making a difference in the community through volunteering. If you are interested in volunteering with us please contact us – we’d love to have you join the team!
Want to know more about free programs offered in the city? Call Toronto Health Connections at 416-338-7600 or 211 to access community resources for anyone.
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…)
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
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.
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.
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!
Food is extremely important in all of our lives.
It’s a part of each day, whether we are sharing it with others or enjoying it by ourselves. We make decisions as to whether we want to go to a restaurant to eat, cook something up in the kitchen or just take it easy and order something right to the door.
Whether your favourite food is pizza, salad, cookies or the many kinds of food out there, we all have opinions and preferences about the food we eat.
We can’t live without it.
This is why I find the statistics of hunger in our own backyard so disheartening.
Over 15,000 people use the food bank in North York every month.
1/3 of food bank users are children.
54% of people using the food bank will miss a meal to pay other bills such as rent and transportation.
33% of the people we serve will go without food at least one day per week.
As you may recall, a few months ago I told you about Niraj Maharaj, the coordinator of the Food 4 Thought Food Bank at York University. He saw the need for a food bank for students on campus and went to work making it happen. He’s not the only person from York University that is making changes in his community.
Recently, I got a chance to speak with Rumsha Siddiqui, a student at York U. She heard about hunger statistics in her class and was shocked that this is such a prominent issue in a city such as Toronto. Hearing about this problem made her motivated to make a difference.
“We are all part of one big community and it bothers me that some of us go to bed with a full stomach while others don’t. I felt the need to do something.”
Rumsha and her classmates banded together to raise awareness in the community and help their neighbours in need.
They visited schools to do presentations, teaching others about hunger in the city.
They approached local stores to sponsor their food drive.
They even ran a cotton candy event with the local student clubs to raise awareness.
Rumsha and a few of her fellow students also joined us in the warehouse to volunteer sorting thousands of pounds of food. She told me how she had a great time helping out. She said she admired the dedication of the volunteers and staff.
In total, the York University students managed to raise 5800 lbs. of food for their neighbours in need! With that incredible donation, 580 people in Toronto will receive a hamper full of good healthy food and be able to put food on the table tonight.
What advice does Rumsha have for anyone wanting to fundraise for charity?
“Reach out to local businesses – even if you get rejected, don’t give up! We ended up having 3 stores sponsor us and raised a lot of food. Don’t forget to reach out to your local community and give them the facts. Just like we had no idea how big of an issue hunger is in our city – most people are also shocked to find out.”
The Every Plate Full Campaign is on right now and it’s such an easy and fun way to get together with your friends, classmates, coworkers or even just as an individual to raise money for people in need! Click here to find out more!
We love our volunteers! Without their dedication and heart, we wouldn’t be able to provide food for over 13,000 people in Toronto every month! THANK YOU!
To celebrate their commitment, we have put together a slideshow of many of our fantastic volunteers in action!
Join the Team! Volunteer with Us!
Without the help of our INCREDIBLE volunteers it would not be possible to serve over 13,000 people every month!
Volunteers are incredibly important to their community! I get to meet fantastic volunteers of North York Harvest every day and they always have a smile on their face and a great story to tell.
Volunteers are the lifeblood of any nonprofit organization! Without your help, charities like North York Harvest would not be able to collect, sort and distribute millions of pounds of food that serves over 16,000 people each month!
Did you also know that there are many benefits in becoming a volunteer?
1. Learn a new skill. Did you know NYH volunteers learn skills such as safe food handling, cooking, building a budget and much more?
2. Make new friends and meet interesting people. Meet new people with similar interests or people from different walks of life. Bond with others while helping out in your community.
3. Boost your resume. Volunteering is a job even though you aren’t paid to do it. Many employers and colleges find the skills you gain from volunteering very important when looking for a person to hire.
4. Increase self-confidence. When you do good in the community, it really gives you a feeling of accomplishment and pride. These feel good feelings will go with you into other areas of your life such as work or friendships.
5. Stay physically fit. Many of the volunteers at North York Harvest lift boxes and are on their feet moving around to sort food or serve food bank clients. But even if you have limited mobility there are many other ways to get involved such as making phone calls and helping in the office!
6. Set a good example for your kids. Steffi volunteers with her family sorting food in the warehouse. “We serve as examples for children through our actions more than our words. We have not ever used a food bank and many need to. So I want my children to understand this is a reality for many people in Toronto”.
7. Minimize stress. Move beyond your day-to-day troubles that can arise from your job or stress at home.
8. Make a difference! Volunteers are essential to maintaining a thriving community! It wouldn’t be possible without you!