Toronto residents give back for Thanksgiving
Posted October 8, 2011 6:18 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
About 600 volunteers spent Saturday morning sorting and packing food donations at Daily Bread Food Bank to see families through the Thanksgiving weekend.
Volunteers will be sorting and packing boxes on Thanksgiving Monday as well as a part of the food bank’s annual Fall Drive.
“Volunteers are crucial to the work we’re doing at Daily Bread,” Richard Matern, acting director of research at Daily Bread told CityNews.
Christina Catania spent her sixth wedding anniversary sorting and packing food at the food bank with her husband who works at the Daily Bread’s warehouse.
“I haven’t always been as fortunate as I am now,” she said. “It’s because of organizations like this that I am where I am now so I always feel a need to give back.’
“It’s the right thing to do [to] give back to the community and to the people less fortunate,” said first-time volunteer Walid Seleh.
Toronto Fire Services hosted a barbecue lunch Saturday afternoon to launch Fire Prevention Week and support the Fall Drive. Proceeds from the lunch will be donated to Daily Bread.
As of Friday, the food bank has raised $165,000 and about 50,000 kilograms (110,000 pounds) of food have been donated. With less than a week left in the food drive, they are shy of their goal to raise $400,000 and about 181,000 kilograms (400,000 pounds) kilograms of food by Oct. 14.
But the food bank stresses that shelves must be stocked year-round.
“It’s important to note that all the donations coming in for this weekend [are] to feed people for the next four [to] five weeks,” Matern said. “The food drive is to support people beyond the holiday periods as well.”
In the organization’s annual Who’s Hungry Report, a survey of people who access food banks across the GTA, the Daily Bread reports a 14 per cent increase in the number of food bank users compared to same period three years ago.
“We’re basically very much in need,” Matern said. “We have a lot of mouths to feed and it’s an ongoing struggle to keep up with demand.”
The Fall Food Drive at North York Harvest Food Bank would be unachievable without its volunteers, its executive director said.
“We can’t do what we do without their help,” said Anette Chawla, executive director of the North York Harvest Food Bank said. “They make sure we can then continue to provide uninterrupted food assistance in a dignified manner to northern Toronto.”
Don Valley West (Ward 25) Coun. Jaye Robinson was among volunteers sorting and packing food donations Saturday afternoon.
“We have tons of family and friends here today to help out, sorting the food and getting it out to the community,” said Robinson.
“The most important thing is for people to donate money or food because without that we don’t have anything to sort,” she said.
The goal of the drive is to raise $90,000 and about 41,000 kilograms (90,000 pounds) by Oct. 14.
Make a financial or food donation
Financial contributions to Daily Bread can be made online at www.dailybread.ca or by phone with a credit card by calling 416-203-0050. Cheques can be mailed to:
Developmental Department at Daily Bread Food Bank
191 New Toronto Street
Toronto, ON M8V 2E7.
Non-perishable donations can be dropped off at any local fire hall, Loblaws, Real Canadian Superstore, No Frills or valu-mart.
Financial contributions to North York Harvest can be made online at www.northyorkharvest.com or by phone with a credit card by calling 416-635-7771. Cheques can be mailed to:
North York Harvest Food Bank
640 Lawrence Ave West
Toronto, ON M6A 1B1.
Non-perishable donations can be dropped off at any local fire hall and participating grocery stores. Drop-off locations are available at www.northyorkharvest.com.
