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!
One of the best ways of getting involved with your community is by holding your very own food & funds drive! This is an awesome way of collecting money and non-perishable items that will go towards providing many meals for your neighbours in need!
Did you know that there are MANY ways to raise food and funds that are exciting and fun?
Check out some of these great ideas!
Host a talent show!
Invite the entire school including parents and the surrounding community! You can charge 2 cans for admission and have us come and support you! Don’t forget to live tweet everything!
Have a street or parking lot party!
Put out a food collection bin and run a carnival and BBQ. Game tickets can go towards NYH!
Cram a bus!
Cram a bus with as much food as (safely) possibly and join us at the food bank! We would love to give you a tour and show you how we sort the food!
Dress Down (or Up) for Work
In order for an employee to come wearing something other than usual, they must bring two cans of food or a monetary donation.
Host a Competition for Who Brings in the Most Food & Funds
Give out prizes like:
most food collected per site/office/classroom
collected the most money
best photos of the food collection staging
Host a Silent Auction or Raffle
Funds raised from your event will help support over 13,000 people a month with their food needs!
Host a Dance
Attendees can bring food or a donation to the food bank as their entrance fee. You can even have a dance off to find out who has the best moves!
Have a Garage Sale
Clean out your unwanted items (one person’s trash can be another’s treasure!) while raising money for your neighbours that are hungry!
Ready to have a great time and provide meals to your neighbours that are hungry? Contact Leslie at leslie@northyorkharvest.com or 416-635-7771 ex 21 TODAY!
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.
Isn’t it wonderful when you see people working together and committing to a cause with great passion? I’m lucky because I get to see that kind of enthusiasm each day at North York Harvest. One of the companies that we have been grateful to work with is BrandActive.
BrandActive has been a very important partner with North York Harvest for years. They have quite a suiting name as well because they are very active in helping others and making a big impact. We are constantly amazed by the commitment and passion shown by this group of wonderful people.
I recently had the chance to sit down and talk with Robynne Budish, who is a cofounder of BrandActive. As a long-time supporter of her community, Robynne always knew that channeling her values through her business was important. I loved hearing her energy and passion as she shared how her company is involved in making a difference.
For the past two years, BrandActive has collaborated with NYH to hold a Back to School event for the community.“I know I could write a cheque or come in to sort food once in a while. But because of the resources I have through BrandActive, I am able to make a bigger impact,” says Robynne. As an outreach activity, her team purchased school supplies and packed them in backpacks for over 500 kids in the community. “I loved overhearing how excited people were to see what was in those backpacks.” Most families have to stretch their limited budget when their kids go back to school. Often it means less food for mom and dad. “It might only be a backpack but that’s $60 they can save and spend on food.”
BrandActive is also one of the top food sorters in the warehouse! When they come in you can just feel the positive vibes that these employees have. They were most recently in to sort food in the warehouse in December and they sorted an amazing 10,068 lbs. of food! To put that into perspective – that food will make up hampers of food for close to 1,000 people.
The outreach activities with BrandActive also resonate with the employees at the organization. “A lot of people don’t realize how large the issue of food security and hunger is in our own backyard,” Robynne says of engaging her employees in community giving. “I am happy I can raise that awareness. Some of my employees have also told me that they plan on coming back on their own time with their family.”
But it wasn’t just motivating her employees that drew Robynne to the food bank. “NYH does more than just provide food. It’s trying to meet a deeper need for food security. They are trying to have a greater impact. That resonates with our company.”
“You realize that whatever you have in life is determined by what opportunities you are given,” Robynne told me. “But I believe that everybody deserves respect no matter what walk of life you come from, no matter what opportunities came your way. One of the first things I heard when I was here was about the dignity and respect that choice model food banks provide.”
“If everybody had dignity and respect for each other, imagine how much better of place the world would be?”
Because of entrepreneurs like Robynne and companies like BrandActive, more and more people in the community are being engaged and becoming aware of the growing issue of food insecurity. We are thankful for all of their hard work making a difference in their community.
As the Winter Food Drive wraps up, we are absolutely astounded by how the community came together to support your neighbours in need! Your holiday spirit and eagerness to make a difference in the lives of people that are hungry was nothing short of incredible!
All of your efforts raised $270,000 & 250,000 lbs. of food!
From the food drives…
To generous financial donations…
To even some really creative fundraising ideas…like Ferrero holding a product sale in the lobby of their building. It sold out quickly and had a line up right out the door!
It’s amazing what a group of generous and community minded people can achieve when they get together!
You even booked the sort room for every session available to help sort the groceries coming in from the drive!
Our friends from Brand Active sorted a whopping 10,068 lbs. of food for families in need!
Our Winter Public Sort was booked to capacity with volunteers more than a month before the event!
Including City Councillors Shelley Carroll & Frank Di Giorgio
Even Mayor John Tory stepped in to help!
Your time and effort was absolutely awesome!
Because of YOU we can provide almost 1 MILLION meals to people right here in Toronto!
Kids will enough enough to eat…
Shelters for teens will be able to provide well rounded meals…
Community members can get together to bond over the joy of food…