Mobile Food Bank: Delivering more than just food

Guest post by Kathryn Dunmore, Red Cross blogger

Delivering food to housebound Toronto residents, the Canadian Red Cross Mobile Food Bank also delivers a healthy serving of community support.

Piloting in 2002, the program received a lot of positive feedback in helping people who cannot physically get to a food bank for their supplies. Starting out by targeting the highest-needs neighbourhoods in Toronto, as identified by United Way, the Mobile Food Bank now serves more than 560 individuals and provides more than 11,000 hampers.

“We partnered with the United Way to provide a mobile food bank to 13 priority neighbourhoods originally, serving 70 households in the early 2000s,” said Kathleen Nicoll, Community Services Coordinator for Canadian Red Cross. “Now we are all throughout Toronto, serving more than 360 households.”

Kris and Craig drive the mobile food bank in Toronto.

As well as partnering with United Way, the Mobile Food Bank works with the Daily Bread Food Bank and North York Harvest to supply food to people who cannot get out of their houses for various reasons.

“Our clients are not able to access walk-in food banks,” explained Kathleen. “There is something impeding their mobility. Often, without support, they may not get anything. Isolation is also a factor so often we’re the only people they get to talk to. There are a lot of people who are disabled, lost movement due to age or recovering at home; there are more people at home living with disabilities than ever before. On one hand, it’s great to see people living/recovering in their own homes but on the other hand, they need amenities like food.”

Each hamper has food that will best serve the family, such as meeting diet and allergy needs.

“A lot of people have special diet needs, which is an additional challenge,” said Kathleen. “For example, we have to meet the needs of someone who is diabetic with a daughter who is lactose intolerant. We pack each hamper for each household.”

The Mobile Food Bank is on a two-week rotation to deliver food supplies to all clients in different areas of Toronto, within 10 different delivery zones.

Thank you to United Way, Daily Bread Food Bank, North York Harvest, Second Harvest and our volunteers  for its ongoing commitment to feed residents in need!