Status Update: November 1, 2023

We provide this mid-fall status update to share ongoing demand statistics and observations from the semester so far.

If you have any questions about this information, please get in touch.

Fall 2023 Usage

This is our busiest fall ever, which aligns with new national data from Food Banks Canada. We are currently meeting a 50 percent increase in client visits over last fall, but we are spending more than $10,000 per month on food to meet this higher demand.

• We distributed 964 hampers to 1587 individuals in September 2023.

  • September 2022: 635 hampers to 999 individuals.

• We distributed 1037 hampers to 1637 individuals in October 2023.

  • October 2022: 693 hampers to 1191 individuals.

  • Highest ever: March 2023, 1052 hampers to 1646 individuals.

• We are currently fully booked for appointments in the next three weeks. We are still booking emergency appointments by email if someone is in immediate need of food access.

• In just the last week of October 2023, we distributed 5,500 pounds of food: our highest food demand in one week ever. We believe that clients are taking more food per household than last year because of an inability to make ends meet beyond the food we provide, and we are currently struggling to decide if we need to reduce maximums or visit frequency to ensure equitable access to the food that we do have.

Annual Report & AGM

The Campus Food Bank ran its Annual General Meeting on October 18 and had more than 70 people attend!

For clients and others in our community who weren’t able to make it, our annual report is embedded below, and our AGM package includes full financial statements.

Congratulations and welcome to our new board members Isabella De Dominicis Barrios, Em Matheson, Michelle Peters-Jones, and Rebecca Saul. They join our existing board members Jessica Dugan (chair), Ravina Grewal (treasurer), Sarah Wolgemuth (secretary), Fairouz Tayem (volunteer rep), Haseeb Arshad (GSA rep), Michael Griffiths (SU rep), Lisa Clarke (Chaplain’s rep, non-voting), and Thanusha Christian Pelenage (Non Profit Board Internship program).

We also presented some examples of other campus food banks doing interesting work, and gathered input from attendees about the strategic concerns we will be tackling with our board over the next year.

The CFB will be undertaking significant governance work this year, including opening up our bylaws and policies. We will be engaging in intentional learning and planning to ensure we continue evolving our equity work. Questions we will be tackling will include: how does our governance structure affect our ability to centre clients’ voices and needs?; who are we accountable to, and how?; how are we honouring treaty and taking decolonization seriously, especially as an organization related to food?; what does it mean to do food security work on one campus when the issue of food security is so much bigger?; and more!

Trick or trEAT Food Drive

This annual tradition took place on Saturday, October 29 and involved more than 200 volunteers! Some volunteers went door-to-door in the neighbourhoods around North Campus to collect food donations from residents. Together, our incredible volunteers collected and sorted through 4500 pounds of usable food donations. A mere two years ago, this amount would have lasted us until the end of the calendar year. This year, we aren’t sure if it will last one week or two.

Looking ahead

We have several projects and ideas to tackle this stunning demand that you will hear more about in the coming months:

• We will be launching a second location in Rutherford in January 2024. This space will not be staffed but will have regular volunteer check-ins for cleanliness and food safety monitoring. Anyone with a ONEcard can open the pantry door, both folks wishing to donate and drop off food, and folks looking to access some groceries on the way home after a day on campus. The CFB is developing an “adopt-a-week” program for departments and units on North Campus, to ensure the entire campus community has the opportunity to support campus food security.

• We have hired a new part-time student role this year, our Client Engagement Coordinator, to add to our existing student role of Digital Engagement Coordinator. Our new client engagement role is filled by Priya, who has already begun client office hours on Thursday evenings and will be undertaking other client feedback and support projects throughout the remainder of this school year.

• The CFB will be running a public education campaign on campus later in November to bring attention to our heightened demand.

• Participate in our second annual CFB Toy Drive to support the 200+ kiddos of client families who we serve!

What can you do to help?

• Make a donation directly on our website or by bringing items to our office.

• Volunteer recruitment for Winter 2024 semester will begin mid-November!

To conclude, please join us in thanking the 130+ volunteers who make the CFB work. They are incredible and there is no way to properly thank them, but we will be celebrating their contributions with a big end of semester volunteer party!

Thank you everyone for your support of the Campus Food Bank.

Until next update,

The Campus Food Bank team
Caitlin, Erin, Madi, Priya, and Rhea