In My Opinion: Community care for and support of Grace Pascoe Food Bank is critically important

By DEBBIE VISCONTI

GRACE PASCOE FOOD BANK

Our community needs you! This winter will be our third since we re-opened the GPCC (Grace Pascoe Care Centre) Food Bank at Calvary Baptist Church.

We are a volunteer-run food bank, supported by Daily Bread and Second Harvest, that can only do our work serving neighbours who are food insecure with the help of the community, including the church who donates the space, the volunteers who show up every single week, and the donations and understanding of the Beach community.

This community has done so much to support its neighbours who are food insecure, and many of you work so hard every year to support us.

We have local schools who do food drives, and small businesses who have promotional proceeds come to us.

You also ask questions about food insecurity and share in our frustration that people in the Beach cannot access their right to food without great difficulty. You make us so proud to be a part of this community.

We’d like to take a moment here to give you some facts about food insecurity as described by the Daily Bread Food Bank in their latest annual report “Who’s Hungry”:

• In the last year, there were 3.49 million client visits to Toronto food banks – nearly 1 million more visits than the year prior and a 273 per cent increase since pre-pandemic.
• It is unfathomable that the number of client visits to food banks is now higher than the City of Toronto’s entire population.
• In the midst of crushing rent and food prices, and an unsustainable cost of living, our neighbours are struggling to meet their most basic needs.
• Every food bank visit is a policy failure. Who’s Hungry 2024 is a call to action from real individuals trapped in poverty. Together, we are calling on all levels of government to create real long-term solutions to end poverty and food insecurity.
• Stronger policies around affordable housing, decent wages, newcomer supports, and higher social assistance rates will help to ensure that every Torontonian is able to live a life of dignity and realize their right to food.

We see this every week at our food bank, with a growing number of people coming to see us each year, many of them seniors and children.

We believe they have a right to food and that no one should have to stand in line and rely on charity to exercise this human right, so again we are asking for the help of the community.

There are a few ways you can help:

We welcome donations of non-perishables such as canned beans and meat, canned fruit and vegetables, including pasta sauce, and cereal. We are also always in need of diapers and wipes for our smallest neighbours. If you would like to make a financial donation, please email us at gpcc@calvary-baptist-church.ca and we’ll let you know available options.

We also ask that you continue to think of your neighbours who are food insecure and help advocate for policies to end poverty and food insecurity. You can find more information on Daily Bread Toronto’s website, including a form to contact your local politicians: https://www.dailybread.ca/get-involved/demand-action/

Our neighbours deserve to go through their day at work, school and out in the community without worrying about how they will meet their basic need for food, just like many of us are lucky enough to do.

Thank you so much, and all the best for the coming holiday season.