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 2025, here are five ways, based on your New Year’s resolution, that will make a real impact on food insecurity in Toronto.
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 non-perishable food or give monetary donations in lieu of presents. You can create an online fundraiser in just a few clicks and send out the link with your invitations.
Don’t want to wait for your next special occasion? Become a Daily Bread Community Champion and start your own food drive or fundraiser. You can rally your loved ones and make the drive the reason you get together. See how to get started and download resources 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.
Apply to be a volunteer researcher with Daily Bread. We’re looking for volunteers to go to various Toronto food banks this spring and conduct surveys with clients about their experiences with food insecurity. The results of this survey inform the annual Who’s Hungry report, which is used to advocate for solutions to end hunger and poverty in our city.
In this role, volunteers can expect to learn best practices in research, receive training on conducting the survey, learn about food insecurity and gain experience in the field. Learn more and apply by February 2.
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. Dig into this year’s key findings or read the snapshot, watch the video and share the report with your networks to help spread the word.
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 $10 per month, you’ll be providing 10 meals for neighbours in need? Your monthly gift grants us critical, stable funding so we can better meet the needs of those who rely on our support. Donate here.
