Avenue Road Food Bank fills the gap in affluent neighbourhood

By Courtney Jung 

Just north of where Yorkville meets the Annex, at the edge of Summerhill, the Avenue Road Food Bank, at 240 Avenue Road, provides groceries for about 700 people each week. In mid-November, the numbers jumped to 950. Outside The Church of the Messiah, people start to line up at about 1 p.m. on Wednesdays, even though the doors don’t open until 3 p.m. A lot of people are going hungry in this affluent part of Toronto. 

Most of the guests who use the food bank live in our neighborhood. Others work here, and some are students; you would recognize them. Some clients have been coming since the food bank opened in 2018. Long-term clients are more likely to use food banks because they rely on disability, or another type of social assistance, as their main source of income. Disability support tops out at $1368 a month, or $16,416 annually. In Toronto, the poverty line is $24,720, and the deep poverty line is $18,540. For people who rely on benefits that keep them well below the poverty line, food banks are a long-term reality.

Most of the people who use the food bank, however, are employed. Maria Fernanda and her husband owned a successful bar in Mexico, but things got dangerous. She avoids giving me the details. Along with their two young children, they entered Canada as refugees three years ago. Her husband works in construction, but it’s seasonal. When work gets scarce in the winter months, that’s when she turns to the food bank. 

According to StatsCan, food prices have risen 21.4 per cent in the past three years. What the food bank offers is meant as a supplement; it’s not enough to live on. You can have either one bag of pasta or one bag of rice, as well as four apples, two oranges, and half a dozen eggs. Each person takes home about $50 worth of groceries.

Daniela and her husband have been in Canada for two years. They only started using the food bank four months ago. They never wanted to ask for help. She tells me they “wanted to do things the right way.” Working 40 hours a week in a warehouse, at the minimum wage of $17.20 per hour, her husband makes $2044 a month after taxes. Their rent is $1400. Daniela used to work too, in a restaurant, but she quit when their baby was born. “It would be very, very hard without the food bank,” Daniela said softly. What she really wants to talk about, though, is how much she loves Canada. We’re outside on a cold day, and she mentions how much she loves this weather. Mostly, though, she feels safe here.

About 60 per cent of the food at the food bank comes from Daily Bread and Second Harvest. They are funded by private donations and corporate partnerships. Daily Bread gets donations from food manufacturers, and they partner with Ontario farmers to take produce that would otherwise be discarded. Second Harvest rescues and redistributes surplus food to reduce food waste. They provide some fresh produce, but there are also random donations—one week it was 500 boxes of microwaveable macaroni and cheese. 

Both trucks show up at about 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday mornings with pallets and boxes of food. Volunteers move quickly to get the food off the trucks and into the church hall before settling into the longer job of sorting and organizing that will turn the sanctuary into a temporary supermarket. Folding tables are set up in a U shape. Down the left side of the room are non-perishables: pasta and rice, canned fruits and vegetables, breakfast cereal, and a shelf-stable protein like tuna or peanut butter. Next is milk, yogurt, cheese, and chicken or beef. Along the right is the fresh produce: potatoes, onions, carrots, tomatoes, sometimes cauliflower or squash, apples, oranges or melons, and, once, raspberries. Eggs and bread are at the end. People go through the room in a line, and gloved volunteers hand them a set number of each item. What people receive is consistent week to week; they can count on it. But the experience is almost nothing like going to a grocery store.

The food bank purchases the remaining 40 per cent of their food with donations. 

In July, the food bank spent $12,000 on items such as beef, chicken, cheese, eggs, milk, and bread. By October, the bill was $16,000. The food bank relies on donations. Money donations go the furthest because food can be purchased in bulk and on sale, but food  donations are of course helpful as well. 

Readers who are interested in donating or volunteering may email foodbank@churchofthemessiah.ca.

READ MORE:

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