Welcoming a new year is like an invitation for self-growth. It’s a fresh start to better ourselves and our communities.
If you’re looking to give back in 2023, here are five ways, based on your New Year’s Resolution, that will make a real impact on food insecurity in Toronto.
Volunteer (any amount!) at Daily Bread. Volunteering with us is a win-win-win. Toronto wins because food is getting out into the community faster. Daily Bread wins because you’re getting us closer to our mission of ending hunger in our city. And you win because it just feels good to get off the couch and work with friendly people toward a worthy cause.
There are four main tasks for volunteers to choose from: sorting food donations, fulfilling food-bank orders in the warehouse, prepping meals in the kitchen or serving clients in the on-site food bank. Any of these will help you get your steps in. Learn more and register here.
Write to your elected officials to advocate for poverty-eliminating change. Food insecurity is a symptom of poverty. People access food banks only when their incomes aren’t sufficient for them to afford food. As long as Toronto’s cost of living continues to rise faster than its income and social assistance rates, food insecurity will worsen. We need government intervention to reverse this trajectory.
Write to your elected officials at least once this year to tell them that they need to prioritize poverty-reducing strategies, like improving affordable housing. We make it easy; we’ve set up a templated email that automatically sends to your representatives based on your street address. Email your representatives here.
Raise food or funds at your next celebration. Whether it’s a birthday bash, anniversary dinner or retirement party, ask your friends or family to bring nonperishable food or give monetary donations in lieu of presents.
Don’t want to wait for your next special occasion? Become a Daily Bread Community Champion; rally your loved ones and make the food or fund drive the reason you get together. See how to get started and download resources here.
Read and share our data-packed reports. Every year, we interview over a thousand Toronto food bank clients to provide a profile of food insecurity across the city in our Who’s Hungry report. In 2022, we also published A Decade of Deep Poverty, which analyzed 12 years of Who’s Hungry data, and we collaborated with University of Calgary researchers on a new report that found the exact effect of increasing rents or social-assistance rates on the number of food bank visits at the city and provincial level.
Learn more about food insecurity (and what you can do to help) by reading and sharing our reports.
Become a Daily Bread monthly donor. Did you know that if you give $30 per month, you’ll be providing someone in need one meal a day? Your monthly gift grants us critical, stable funding so we can better meet the needs of those who rely on our support. Learn more and donate here.
