Student Nutrition • Field to Table Schools • Good Food Café • Focus on Food Youth Internships Good Food Box • Good Food Markets • Fresh Produce for Schools and Community Agencies

Baby and Toddler Nutrition • Community Kitchens • Field to Table Catering • FoodLink Hotline • Power Soups Community Gardening • Composting • Beekeeping • Urban Agriculture • Sunshine and Bendale Market Gardens

FoodShare Toronto is an innovative non-profit community food organization whose programs include direct fresh produce access, childhood nutrition and education, community cooking, community growing, and urban agriculture. Each month, FoodShare reaches over 145,000 children and adults across the City of Toronto.

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“The original food hub in Canada” – Spring Gillard, The Compost Diaries

“Today I learned that soil is too important to treat like dirt.” – Grade 2 student after a Food Literacy workshop

“This is exactly right! This is what we eat!”  – Immaculate Tumwine, proud and excited to find kale in her Good Food Box, and a recipe to cook it with tomatoes, just like “Skuma” the way they cook it at home in Uganda. 

“Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard, Debbie Field’s Good Food Café and the Bendale school farm show that children and young adults will actually eat good, healthy food as long as the emphasis is on the good.” – Jeannie Marshall, Outside the Box: Why our Children Need Real Food, Not Food Products

Sharing – The Power of Food, the Power of Community

Please know that you are welcome to visit FoodShare’s exciting non-profit Field to Table Community Food Hub at 90 Croatia Street to share with us the hope that inspires us every day, and see your support at work. Call 416.363.6441 x 272 to arrange your tour.

Abdul Haseeb (Good Food Programs). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Adrienne De Francesco (Fundraising & Communications) . 226

Afua Asantewaa (Good Food Programs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Alanah Santos-Mata (Kitchen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Alvin Rebick (Kitchen & Good Food Café) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Amelia Boyd (Student Nutrition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Ana Maria Santinoli (Community Food Animation) . . . . . . . . . . 277

Angela ElzingaCheng (Community Food Programs) . . . . . . . . 247

Angie Olmstead (Student Nutrition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Asher Miller (Good Food Programs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Ayesha Khalid (Student Nutrition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Bill Jenei (Good Food Programs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Brenda Riccardi (Student Nutrition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Brooke Ziebell (Field to Table Schools) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Cafeon Nembhard (Good Food Programs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Carolynne Crawley (Field to Table Schools) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Debbie Field (Executive Director) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Delsie Hyatt (Good Food Box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Doug Whittle (Good Food Programs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Edward Scott (Good Food Programs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Fiona Bowser (Student Nutrition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Gavin Campbell (Good Food Programs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Glenn Kitchener (School and Bulk Produce) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Gloria Padilla (Finance) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Iris Martinez-Siles (Student Nutrition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Jackson Foster (Good Food Programs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

James Davis (Field to Table Schools) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Jesus Gomez (Kitchen & Good Food Café) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Julia Rhodes (Fundraising) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Justin Nadeau (Field to Table Schools) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Katie Willoughby (Administration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Kim Houchen (Student Nutrition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Leonard Abel (Kitchen and Good Food Café) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Lesley Ritchi (Student Nutrition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Liz Kirk (Urban Agriculture) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Luam Kidane (Youth Intern Programs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Mary Roufail (Community Food Animation) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Mat Palmer (Student Nutrition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Meredith Hayes (Schools and Student Nutrition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Mike Nevin (Composting) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Moorthi Senaratne (Good Food Programs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Mylee Nordin (Beekeeping) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Nadira Yasmin (Student Nutrition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Nicole Tyrell (Good Food Programs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Noellie Sotomayor (Student Nutrition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Opal Sparks (Tours and Information) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Rachel Hyde (Catering) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Rachel Van Sligtenhorst (Operations and Events) . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Robyn Shyllit (Communications) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Sherri-Anne Medema (Student Nutrition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Sybil Pinnock (Catering, Power Soups) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Toni Panzuto (Baby and Toddler Nutrition, Volunteers) . . . . . . . 253

Ulla Knowles (Student Nutrition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Uriah Martin (Good Food Programs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Utcha Sawyers (Community Food Animation) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Zahra Parvinian (Social Enterprise) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Zola Dyer (Finance) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

FoodShare’s Good Food Programs connect families and communities with affordable fresh culturally diverse vegetables and fruit, increase consumption of healthy produce, and improve the income of small family farms. Every year, we deliver 50,000 bountiful Good Food Boxes filled with top-quality fresh produce through 200 volunteer-run drops serving 7,000 families. We help increase the availability of fresh produce in food deserts by supporting 17 Good Food Markets run by local groups, and 8 Mobile Good Food Markets. Our markets allow shoppers to purchase quantities that meet their cash flow needs and create vibrant public space helping to break down social isolation. FoodShare’s Fresh Produce Program for Schools and Agencies delivers affordable produce directly to 285 schools, childcare centres and community agencies, serving 67,000 children weekly. With the Ontario Food Terminal, local farmers, and the Ontario Good Food Box Network we are working to establish better food access and more direct farmer linkages through expanded food hubs.

The kitchen is at the heart of FoodShare. Every day our kitchen lovingly prepares and serves fresh, healthy, affordable, culturally diverse food to our family of staff, volunteers and guests. A hub of learning and joy, the kitchen provides hands-on capacity building through hundreds of workshops, prepares nutrient-dense Power Soups delivered by community agencies to the homeless, and houses our Baby and Toddler Nutrition program supporting parents in 8 languages. We also support dozens of health based Community Kitchens across the city, model nutritious home-made sustainable food through our award winning Field to Table Catering, Good Food Café healthy cafeteria and provide employment experience and life skills training in our Focus on Food youth internship program.

FoodShare promotes Community Gardening and Urban Agriculture across Toronto. Gardeners grow food for their families, build community, beautify neighbourhoods and learn nature’s cycles across the city from the grounds of social housing buildings to schoolyards, parks, and abandoned lots. Every year, our mid-scale Composting operation processes food scraps to produce over 25,000 pounds of Toronto’s best compost to feed our gardens. We grow hundreds of pounds of organic food in our onsite Greenhouse and Demonstration Garden, at the Sunshine Garden at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), and facilitate Toronto’s first school market garden in partnership with Bendale Business and Technical Institute, teaching children and community members how easy it is to grow bounties in small spaces. We also work in partnership with the Toronto Community Gardening Network, Toronto Urban Growers, and Toronto Beekeepers Cooperative.

FoodShare recognizes that long-term system change and Good Healthy Food for All can only happen when we work together, and create solutions that build on the energy and wisdom of many. Since 1985, we have worked in social housing buildings with tenant associations to develop food programs, partnering in many Toronto communities to build on existing strengths to grow solutions. Our community food animators work side by side with neighbourhood leaders and local organizations. This community development partnership model means our work is leveraged exponentially, as resources and tools are adapted and passed along. We help bring food to life with Good Food Markets, Community Gardens and Community Kitchens, supporting communities in meeting their own food needs and growing healthy futures.

FoodShare takes a multi-faceted approach to school food leading a movement of change in the way kids eat and learn. We created the model for Student Nutrition Programs, and in partnership with school boards, Toronto Public Health, and community agencies provide grassroots organizing for more than 700 universal programs helping feed 141,000 students daily. Our Fresh Produce Program for Schools provides access to affordable bulk healthy vegetables and fruit, and our Good Food Café demonstrates that children will choose healthy foods in a cafeteria. Field to Table Schools works with educators, parents, and students from JK through Grade 12, to implement hands-on cooking and gardening activities with the goal of making Food Literacy a requirement of graduation. In partnership, we support Market Gardens at Bendale Business and Technical Institute, and Brock Public School, where students plant, grow, harvest, prepare, cook, and eat produce they have grown in their classes onsite. FoodShare and provincial partners, with support from the Greenbelt Fund will be working with schools across Ontario to increase their purchases of local food. 

By freely sharing tools, resources, policies and programs FoodShare takes an open source approach that honours our collective role in a movement working towards a just food system. Our staff of experts – every one a passionate food security community development worker and educator – support and mentor communities to draw on their own strengths, adapt, and grow our solutions. We work quite literally from field to table, taking an innovative multi-faceted and long-term approach to hunger and food issues, to empower through food-based initiatives while at the same time advocating for broader public policies needed to improve Food Security. Each week we host and correspond with individuals and organizations from across Ontario, Canada and internationally, who seek our advice in starting similar programs in their own communities. We provide replicable models, and are proud of hundreds of programs across the country we have helped start, garnering impacts exponentially.

FoodShare partners with underserved communities and schools in Toronto to increase access to and knowledge of sustainably produced Good Healthy Food.

As social entrepreneurs, our work is rooted in innovation, operational excellence and fiscal sustainability.

As social justice advocates, we share expertise and work to build a just food system.

FoodShare quietly weaves people together into communities. – Michelle Landsberg

All photos by Laura Berman except p.12: Mary Roufail & p. 14: Robyn Shyllit

Calendar designed by GreenFuseImages.com

Debbie Field, Executive Director