On October 7, 2023, Daily Bread welcomed almost 200 volunteers for our Thanksgiving food sort! Volunteers are essential in helping us meet this emergency need, and with their help we were able to sort and pack thousands of pounds of high-demand food donations that will be distributed to families facing hunger across the city.
“We are deeply grateful to our community of volunteers for their dedication and commitment to making our city a better place,” said Neil Hetherington, CEO, Daily Bread Food Bank. “Food is a human right, and with the help of our volunteers, we are able to ensure that food gets efficiently packed and distributed to those who need it most.”
We were also joined by MP James Maloney, Premier Doug Ford, Minister Kinga Surma, Mayor Olivia Chow, and Deputy Mayor Amber Morley to help with the food sort and to raise awareness about food insecurity in our city. We’re happy to share that thanks to everyone’s support, we were able to sort 42,394 pounds of food, transforming it from miscellaneous non-perishable foods into sorted, easy to distribute items for our network of 128 agencies and 193 food programs. “Let’s make hunger history, and let’s do it together,” said Mayor Olivia Chow, in a testament to the spirit of the day.
With over 12,500 new, unique clients accessing emergency food services each month, the need for food is urgent and is showing no signs of slowing down. As record-breaking food bank visits continue, all actions make an impact, whether by donating food or funds, volunteering or by advocating for appropriate social supports for our most vulnerable neighbours.
Daily Bread’s Thanksgiving Drive runs until October 31. If you would like to participate, there are a few ways that you can do so: