The hugely successful Bringing Toronto Back to Its Feet program is back and feeding communities and people in need over the holiday season and winter months.
The MLSE-backed community meal donation program, along with the support of Solidarity Kitchens and Second Harvest, is ensuring the delivery of thousands of meals each day to those who need it most.
This past summer, the program produced 13,000 meals per day at its peak to provide a total of 500,000 meals to over 75 community agencies and frontline healthcare workers and their families at 25 hospitals and healthcare facilities in the Greater Toronto Area.
The role of Second Harvest, with the support of its network of food donors, is to supply fresh, surplus ingredients to the MLSE team. The chefs will then turn those food supplies, along with other food purchased or donated to the program, into fresh, nutritious, ready-to-heat meals suitable for a variety of dietary needs. Meals will then be labelled and delivered by Second Harvest, to a network of community agencies.
“We have heard first-hand about the incredible impact these prepared meals have on the lives of people struggling with hunger and limited access to food programs,” said Lori Nikkel, CEO of Second Harvest. “This initiative is improving lives and bringing hope and we are again grateful to MLSE and its partners for mobilizing this incredible team to help us provide healthy and delicious meals to Torontonians.”
In December alone, MLSE’s chefs and food and beverage staff, along with employees throughout the company, will prepare more than 130,000 meals for distribution while the venue remains unused for events.
Solidarity Kitchens, created by La Tablée des Chefs and financially supported by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada emergency fund, has given grants to Canadian initiatives, including Bringing Toronto Back To Its Feet, with a goal of creating 2 million meals for those in need across the country.
