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Our Holiday Pop Up Food Hub took place just before Christmas on Wednesday December 22nd. As the Omicron variant began to take its toll we were forced to pivot and adapt the way we typically run our food bank
On average we spend $40-50 per family for our food bank and are able to provide $75-100 value in food. However, because of the risks of the new variant, we will adapted and provided on average $80/family in grocery gift cards along with a holiday protein of turkey, ham or chicken.
Our small but mighty team of staff and volunteers braved the cold and rapid antigen tests to pull off our COVID-pivoted food distribution at the 415 Food Hub, where we were able to serve 94 households! We sang Christmas carols with our patrons to keep warm and all of the food was distributed outside.
Thank you to our amazing team: the Earl Haig students who volunteered with us, the rest of the NeighbourLink North York team and especially Lily Su who was an amazing coordinator! We also thank our patrons who were gracious with our new model of outdoor distribution. Thanks also to all who have helped keep our shelves full!
Special thanks goes to Loblaws Empress Walk for their generous donation of 35 turkeys for our neighbours.
We're also very grateful for Carlos's No Frills at Centerpoint Mall for donation $400 in grocery gift cards and Mike Tuft of Tuft's Valu-Mart (Bayview and Cummer) who contributed $300 in gift cards!
It was a community effort once again and truly a Christmas Miracle! It's likely we will be adapting this model throughout the winter. To donate to the food bank Click Here