Through a monumental fundraiser effort with a dedicated team, the FCR Thriving Neighbourhoods Foundation – along with funding partners First Capital REIT – delivered in a big way, raising $281,197 during the holiday season! This tremendous effort provides 562,000 meals to Canadian families in need at an often difficult time of year.
This was all possible thanks to the generous donations of FCR Foundation’s staff, family, friends, and corporate partners. Together, they created the opportunity for Second Harvest to rescue and redistribute over 780,000 pounds of food! Diverting that much surplus food from landfills stopped 2.9 million pounds of greenhouse gases from harming our atmosphere. The reduction equates to taking 400 cars off the road for one year. What a spectacular group effort!
The FCR Thriving Neighbourhoods Foundation is an employee-led organization that supports registered charities and philanthropic initiatives that support the local neighbourhoods. Since its inception in 2020, it has been solely focused on food insecurity – one of the foundation’s four main pillars, alongside mental health, youth initiatives, and social justice.
The foundation set an initial goal of $50,000 and encouraged staff, their friends and family, as well as corporate partners, to donate funds through an online portal. FCR then matched all employee donations, dollar for dollar, doubling the support for Second Harvest.
FCR kicked off the charitable initiative with an employee-led fundraising walk through seven urban neighbourhoods across Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver. They also offered a virtual attendance option to allow for all staff to participate and join in on the cross-country event.
By October’s end, the staff fundraising had come to a close, yet FCR continued receiving corporate donations through November and December. The end result far exceeded their initial goal and expectations!
“We are really proud of this fundraising campaign and being able to provide over 560,000 meals to people across Canada. With this just being our second year of the foundation, we have our sights set on continuing to grow these initiatives year after year.”
Meaghan Bach, co-chair of the FCR Thriving Neighbourhoods Foundation
“Generally, we do not receive any funding from the government and rely solely on the generosity of individual and corporate donors like FCR”, said Corey Smith, Former Vice President, Philanthropy at Second Harvest. “We truly could not do what we do without companies like FCR!”
Check out the “The Explainer” podcast below, where the host interviews Melissa Campisi and Meaghan Bach, co-chairs of the FCR Thriving Neighbourhoods Foundation, as well as Corey Smith, Former VP of Philanthropy at Second Harvest.
The Peter Gilgan Foundation helps those that help others. Their impressive mission is “To improve the lives of children and families by empowering charities that help the world transition to a more healthy, prosperous, and sustainable future.” They envision a sustainable future—a world without poverty and with ever-improving healthcare for all. Second Harvest is proud to be a partner in the foundation’s quest to support children, youth, and families by supplying nutritious food to those who need it most.
We had the pleasure of speaking with Stephanie Trussler, Program Officer & Board Member, and asked her a few questions to better understand The Peter Gilgan Foundation and the goals in their partnership with Second Harvest. Here is our enlightening interview with her.
Q1: Tell us about the Peter Gilgan Foundation. Why do you do the work you do?
The Peter Gilgan Foundation is a private family foundation. We aim to support charitable organizations as they build a more healthy, prosperous, and sustainable future. We fund charities in three main areas: Children, Youth, and Families with a focus on education, health and wellness, and economic opportunity; Environment and Sustainability with a focus on low emission and renewable energy solutions, education and public awareness, green development and community engagement; and International Development with a focus on maternal and child health, and education and economic opportunity for women and girls.
We do the work we do because we believe that everyone deserves opportunities. We want to help provide people with the chance to fulfill their potential and live healthy, productive, rewarding lives in a sustainable world. We believe that giving back to the community is a responsibility and it is our absolute privilege to work with the amazing organizations that we have partnerships with.
Q2: Did the Peter Gilgan Foundation’s giving change in response to the global pandemic?
When the pandemic hit, it was hard to know what to do. All we knew is that we wanted to help. So, we put our regular grant-making on hold and initiated a three-part response. We took a react and research, relief, and rebuild approach. In the early days of Covid-19, we supported testing equipment through St. Michael’s Hospital because at that time testing was sparse and deemed essential to understanding more about the virus, where it was, how it was spreading etc.
Our second phase focused on relief, where we supported a series of organizations addressing food insecurity, Second Harvest being one of them. The third part of our response was to help rebuild, where we supported numerous grassroots organizations in the hopes that our support would help keep them afloat during those challenging times and/or enable them a bit more flexibility to adapt their programming as necessary.
We have since resumed our regular grant-making and are undergoing a deep analysis of how we want to move forward as a foundation. Some lessons learned from the pandemic that have impacted the Foundation’s giving are to be more flexible in how organizations spend grants. While there needs to be accountability, transparency, and a desire remains to measure outcomes, we have also realized that situations are unpredictable. Those working on the front lines of an organization are much more in tune with what the needs are, and sometimes adjustments need to be made. We always encourage open communication with the grantees we support so that each grant may be maximized in usefulness.
Unfortunately, the pandemic also disproportionately affected youth, women, and people of colour. We are doubling our efforts to support organizations that not only support these groups but are also led by them.
Q3: How has supporting Second Harvest impacted your team and your greater community?
It has been extremely fulfilling supporting Second Harvest. Supporting the health of children, youth, and families as well as fighting climate change are key elements of the Peter Gilgan Foundation’s mandate and partnering with organizations that are simultaneously doing both is so meaningful. Second Harvest is a leader in the space and provides leadership and a network to so many other social service agencies.
Second Harvest has a massive impact on the community as they directly impact all the individuals and families who receive nutritious food, allowing farmers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, wholesalers, and hotels with a trusted place to turn with excess food and divert so much waste from landfills. When there are so many people experiencing food insecurity, it is such a lost opportunity for excess food to go to waste. Second Harvest has an intricate network where so many important issues are addressed and people and the environment benefit tremendously.
Q4. What does “No Waste. No Hunger” mean to the Peter Gilgan Foundation?
To the Peter Gilgan Foundation “No Waste. No Hunger” is one of the ultimate goals. It is our vision to see every person live free from poverty, and have access to all their educational, health, and economic needs. We also want to see people living in a sustainable world. Second Harvest’s mission of “No Waste. No Hunger” benefits everyone, as more people are eating nutritiously, health outcomes improve, and the environment is spared harmful effects. It is a win-win for everyone.
Q5. If you could say one thing to people and organizations considering supporting Second Harvest, what would it be?
Second Harvest is best in class. Besides the moral and ethical motivations to support Second Harvest and the work they do, there is also so much logic to it. When there is food that will literally be thrown out, only to create GHG emissions and increase landfills, further damaging our environment, why not get it to people who need it and benefit so greatly from it? The impact of Second Harvest is so profound as people’s health and lives will be improved from this nutritious food.
Thank you, Stephanie Trussler and the Peter Gilgan Foundation for speaking with us!
Natasha Bowes, Senior Manager of Philanthropy for Second Harvest, seen above with her family (second from right) recently had a chance to “walk the walk” and join her Second Harvest colleagues during a delivery day in December in honour of Giving Tuesday. It was an emotional experience for Natasha where she witnessed the human side of a food delivery in making a connection with those on the receiving end. Here’s her account of the experience.
Delivery Day with Hektor
Second Harvest rescues food and delivers it to community groups who feed people in need, but last week, I had the opportunity to experience it firsthand.
We began our day at the warehouse, the team began loading trucks and hustling through their morning routine when I arrived at 7 am. When the trucks were loaded, Hektor, delivery driver extraordinaire, as well as Corey our VP of Philanthropy, drove off in the truck and I followed close behind.
Our first delivery was at Across Boundaries. They take a holistic approach to mental health care but are also anchored in an anti-racist, anti-black racism and anti-oppression framework. The rescued food was welcomed with warm smiles and grateful hearts, one down, lots to go!
As we pulled up to a youth shelter, we noticed security guards around the building. We started to unload food when staff explained the need for heightened security due to the shooting that had just happened. I stood in shock for a minute, absorbing this and thinking of my children at home. We continued to unload fresh produce, and what resonated with me most was that these kids will have a warm and meal tonight thanks to our supporters.
Last year this youth shelter supported 136 youth in our community and continued to support over 100 former residents. So much of the need in our communities is unseen.
When the truck pulled up at another organization all you could hear was a man screaming “I want to die”, repeating it over and over at the top of his lungs. Someone came to him, helped him calm down and brought him inside. We continued with our food delivery.
By the entrance sat an adorable senior in her wheelchair with a light blanket covering her lap. We shared a kind smile as we unloaded the food and I noticed her toes peeking from out of her lap blanket, no socks or warm footwear on this cold morning.
She could be someone’s grandma, mom, or sister, and here she was waiting in line an hour early for food. Grocery hampers includes some dairy and protein, a bag of produce, supplied by Second Harvest and some non-perishable food items dropped off the day before from Daily Bread. By the time we finished our delivery, line already had over a dozen people in it. The demand for food has doubled in the past year, the pandemic is hitting our communities hard.
As we drove through the streets of the city that I’ve called home for almost 15 years, I began to see everything through a very different lens. There are boarded-up grocery stores, covered in graffiti, across the school from townhomes with a little playground nearby. Newly built million-dollar condos look over the park where a homeless man sleeps.
Every food drop was followed by immense gratitude from staff and volunteers who serve their communities. You could hear the happiness in their voices over fresh bananas or frozen meat. One lady jumped for joy!
Every week, these community organizations rely on a network of support to feed people in need. They rely on you, me, together, to ensure seniors can eat, or parents can feed themselves and their children. No one should have to choose between rent, hydro, medicine, or food.
It’s now the second-to-last stop of the day, Mothercraft – Breaking the Cycle, a program which serves pregnant and parenting women with substance-use problems, and their young children. We delivered fresh produce including blueberries and fresh bananas.
On the way out, I connected with a mom and her adorable son, Eliseo. His smile melted my heart! His mom thanked us for delivering this fresh produce and diapers for her and her son.
One last stop. I don’t know how Hektor does it day after day, squeezing into little alleys, navigating the busy city streets and fighting the traffic. He manages to park close to the door so it’s easy to unload. Hektor truly is the face of Second Harvest. Our other drivers, just like him do so much more than deliver food. He sees sorrow, hunger, grief, and illness every single day, yet he continues to be an ambassador and a beacon of light and hope with his deliveries.
The chef rushes out of the building, “Hektor! What do we have today?” Hektor smiles. “Oh, we have excellent food today!” Banana’s, Blueberries, Romaine Lettuce, Frozen chicken and produce and even little potatoes.
Hektor smiles and he unloads the last of the fresh carrots. The truck is empty, hundreds of pounds of food was successfully delivered today. Over the next hours and days, our partners will turn it into grocery hampers, prepared meals and nutritious meals served at community programs.
Food is much more than just nutrients, it’s a warm meal after a bad day. It’s a comfort we should all have access to, yet 1 in 5 Canadians don’t.
Thanks to your donations on Giving Tuesday, Second Harvest will be able to rescue enough food for more than 250,000 meals for people experiencing hunger across Canada.
Looking to help out?
Reach out to your local grocery store and encourage them to sign up for the Second Harvest Food Rescue App, a few quick clicks and they can become a food donor! To get involved directly, we have tremendous opportunities to join as a volunteer. You can choose from volunteer opportunities in a variety of areas that can match your skills, interests and availability.
As Canada’s largest food rescue organization, Second Harvest moves a lot of rescued food from donors to charities across the country. To be precise, we rescued 53.3 million pounds of good surplus food in 2022 and redistributed it to more than 3,700 non-profits across the country.
But how exactly does food rescue work?
In short – it takes a lot of precise coordination and collaboration. Many food businesses use Second Harvest’s Food Rescue App to donate their surplus edible food locally. We also have partnerships all across the supply chain to move rescued food long distances – like when we shipped 12 million pounds of PEI potatoes from coast-to-coast-to-coast. And from our main warehouse and headquarters in Toronto, our Driver Ambassadors are on the road picking up and delivering rescued food to non-profits seven days per week.
But sometimes, in a country as large and geographically diverse as Canada, we’re presented with some unique logistical challenges that require a combination of many different modes of transportation and nimble problem-solving to get from point A to point B.
Moving Rescued Food Across Canada’s Vast and Rugged Landscape
From the Canadian Shield to the Canadian Rockies, the expansive Prairies to remote coastal communities on the East, West, and Northern coasts, Canada is a challenging landscape to move anything, let alone perishable rescued food with cold-storage needs.
“Transporting perishable food is a race against time and adding to the urgency is the fact that food donations can happen any time, anywhere,” Second Harvest CEO, Lori Nikkel, explained in our 2020 partnership with Uber Freight. “We always want to be ready to get that healthy food to people who need it, particularly in more remote communities.”
Two of Second Harvest’s fleet of food rescue and redistribution trucks.
Transportation teams must be coordinated ahead of time and have the capability to move frozen or perishable goods for long- and short-haul trips. But our Second Harvest driver ambassadors do so much more than simply deliver food. They work closely with their local community of non-profits and volunteers and get to know the people on the frontlines.
The Aubrey & Marla Dan Foundation has been creating meaningful social change in Ontario for over 20 years. Now alongside Second Harvest, the partnership aims to make monumental community improvements, such as improving the access to food in all communities. We spoke with Alyse Bernbaum, Executive Director of the Aubrey & Marla Dan Foundation recently to get her thoughts and insights.
Q1: Tell us about the Aubrey & Marla Foundation and what inspired to support SecondHarvest?
Alyse Bernbaum, Executive Director, AMDF
The Aubrey & Marla Dan Foundation (AMDF) has been supporting initiatives and creating social change across Ontario since 2002. We’ve funded more than 200 organizations and reached over 200,000 people. In 2018, we began focusing our priorities on mental health and homelessness. Our efforts touch the lives of vulnerable youth, girls, women, marginalized communities, and families.
We began supporting Second Harvest in 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, not only across Toronto and Ontario, but throughout Canada and globally, we were seeing the increasing needs for access to food. With 5.6 million Canadians experiencing food insecurity annually, together with the role that access to safe, consistent food has on one’s overall well-being and mental health, moved us to act. Partnering with Second Harvest greatly aligned with our AMDF values.
Q2: The Aubrey & Marla Dan Foundation has made a tremendous impact with so manyorganizations, including Second Harvest. How does supporting Second Harvest reflectyour foundation’s values?
We believe that individuals and communities deserve to be living a healthy, confident, inspired, and successful life. We place value on ensuring equal opportunities and access to healthcare, mental health resources, housing, and educational supports. Each organization that we support shares our values and drives our mission further.
Second Harvest’s approach to hunger relief, food rescue, and making a positive social impact creates sustainable change and gives back to the community. We also believe in collaboration and working together – Second Harvest partners with several organizations that we support such as SKETCH Working Arts, Workman Arts, Eva’s Initiatives, Youth Without Shelter, Covenant House, and Weston Frontlines. Together, we really are strengthening our impact!
Q3: What does Second Harvest’s vision of a world with “No Waste. No Hunger” mean tothe Aubrey & Marla Dan Foundation?
Second Harvest’s vision aligns with our values of creating equal opportunities for everyone to have access to living a healthier, safer life. When individuals have access to critical resources, such as a basic need and right of food, we see their physical and mental health improve. This is especially important when it comes to youth and their development. Second Harvest’s vision helps AMDF to continue our efforts of prevention and early intervention.
Q4: How has supporting Second Harvest impacted you personally?
When I was in high school, I volunteered with Second Harvest delivering and handing out nonperishable food items. During this time, I met people who rely on these types of critical services and turned to Second Harvest to access their next meal. This time always stayed with me, and I feel as though things are coming full circle as we become long-term partners.
Q5: If you could say one thing to people or other organizations who are consideringsupporting Second Harvest, what would it be?
We know the relationship between access to food and an individual’s overall wellbeing. In knowing this, we cannot ignore the immense need to access the types of resources that Second Harvest is providing. In 2022 alone, Harvest Kitchens distributed over 612,000 meals – AMDF is so proud to partner with such an amazing organization that has far-reaching impact.
Get involved
If your company is interested in helping Second Harvest make positive social, environmental, and economic impact we’d love to hear from you. Whether you are looking for ways to get your company and employees involved in philanthropy, or become a leader in corporate social responsibility, you’ve found the right partner in Second Harvest. More information here.
Recent Comments