North York Harvest Food Bank unveils new vision

The North York Harvest Food Bank unveiled its new mission, vision and values at its annual general meeting earlier this month.

Executive Director, Anette Chawla, said while North York Harvest continues to provide food and food assistance, there was a need to more clearly and accurately define our outlook with what we have learned over time. “We have a larger role to play in addressing hunger in our community than just to be a traditional food bank,” said Chawla.

Our new mission has three key elements:

• To provide dignified food assistance and support to community members in northern Toronto
• To raise public awareness and provide education regarding hunger and its causes
• To engage the community in meeting its members’ food needs

Our vision, “A community where all members are able to meet their food needs,” reflects the ideal state we are striving to achieve, where none of our fellow community members experience a lack of food in our civilized and caring society.

Our values, “Access and Inclusion; Collaboration; Integrity; and Excellence,” reflect our underlying, enduring beliefs and the behaviours we will all strive to adhere to, and for which we commit to be held to account.

These new statements were developed over several months in the course of extensive conversations among North York Harvest’s board and staff, and reflecting input from a variety of stakeholders.