Food Collection and Distribution

As Toronto’s second-largest food bank, collecting and distributing food to people who need it is our core business. Each day, our trucks are on the road collecting food donations and bringing them back to our warehouse where they are sorted, stored and then re-distributed to our network of 60 community programs. More than 1.4 million pounds of food moved through our warehouse last year.

Food Sources

Nearly half of our food comes from the food industry through donations of surplus, close to code or cosmetically damaged products. A similar volume of food is acquired through food drives both as part of major initiatives with supermarket chains and within the community through workplaces, schools, faith groups and community organizations. The remainder of our food comes to us through the Food Banks Canada National Food Sharing System, from local farms and gardens, and from wholesale food purchases.

Sorting

Teams of dedicated volunteers from the community sort food on a daily basis or as part of school and group volunteering activities. Sorting is a crucial part of our quality control where products are evaluated for their safety on an item-by-item basis. We follow strict food safety protocols and we discard food that does not meet these standards. The food is then segmented into a broad spectrum of categories (e.g. "canned vegetables,” "baking products,” etc.) to help us track our inventory.

Distribution

We distribute food to about 40 community agencies in northern Toronto that operate a total of 60 food programs. Each agency order is comprised of a mix of food categories based on the needs of a particular program. After an order has been filled, the food goes back on to our trucks and out to these programs. North York Harvest is one of the few remaining food banks to continue to offer free deliveries to its member agencies, allowing them to direct more of their budgets towards their core services.