Daily Bread Food Bank announces new food programs in Etobicoke and Scarborough

Spring Drive officially launches, and runs to April 1

TORONTO, March 11, 2016 /CNW/ - As Daily Bread's Spring Drive starts, Executive Director Gail Nyberg announced new community partners who are working with Daily Bread to expand much-needed food programs in Etobicoke and Scarborough.

Daily Bread's Who's Hungry report identified a drastic shift in where poverty is moving in Toronto. Priced out of the downtown core, people on low incomes are being pushed to the inner suburbs of Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke. Rent in these areas may be slightly more affordable but there is also a lack of social services, including food programs, to support people on low incomes. Food bank visits in these areas have risen by 45 per cent since 2008, and the few food programs that are available are stretched to their limits.

In response, Daily Bread has been working with a number of community organizations to develop new food programs in these under-served areas. In early September, the doors of Toronto West Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church Food Bank opened in north Etobicoke. Initially serving 32 households, they now serve over 75 households each week. Daily Bread is also partnering with Canadian South Asian Growth and Support Services and Working Women Community Centre to open a new food bank in Scarborough, starting in June.

"At Daily Bread, we believe that food is the most basic need of all," said Gail Nyberg, Daily Bread's executive director. "But, as a community we need to ask why people in this city can't afford to feed themselves and their children. And we need to look to our city government, the Ontario government and the federal government, and ask why they think it's acceptable that a third of people coming to a food bank are children."

Donations to Daily Bread's Spring Drive will allow Daily Bread to partner with more organizations to provide nutritious food to those people who are struggling with hunger. The Spring Drive ends April 1, with goals of $225,000 and 150,000 pounds of food. Financial donations can be made easily and securely online at www.dailybread.ca or by mailing a cheque to Daily Bread Food Bank, 191 New Toronto St., Toronto, Ontario, M8V 2E7. Non-perishable food donations can be dropped off at any local fire hall.

About Daily Bread Food Bank

Daily Bread Food Bank is the largest provider of food relief in the GTA, and distributes millions of pounds of nutritious food to almost 200 food programs across Toronto. Daily Bread feeds nearly 100,000 people every year through homeless shelters, women's shelters, drop in programs, food banks and meal programs. Daily Bread also focuses on fighting hunger by fighting the root cause of hunger – poverty. Find out more about Daily Bread Food Bank at www.dailybread.ca.

SOURCE Daily Bread Food Bank

For further information: Sarah Anderson Austin, Daily Bread Food Bank, Senior Manager, Communications, E: [email protected], M: 416-450-2196