By: Faith Torres

All Nations International Development Agency

Our ANIDA Food Bank program is busy preparing for our annual Thanksgiving food drives with corporate and community partners across the GTA. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be collecting food donations, organizing and preparing hampers for local families. We serve about 2,000+ families a month, and we want to ensure our team is ready to serve! 

We’re also looking forward to welcoming corporate teams to the Food Bank to volunteer their time, help assemble hampers, and support their distribution to families in our community.

Thanksgiving is a season of gathering and giving thanks. For us, it is also a reminder of what can happen when people choose to share what they have. Whether it’s financially giving, donating food, volunteering a few hours, or bringing a team together to serve, every contribution helps us prepare to support families in our community.

For many families, however, having enough food on the table is not always guaranteed. Across Canada, millions of people live in households that have struggled to afford the food they need. Food banks are also seeing increased demand. According to Food Banks Canada, food banks across the country recorded nearly 2.2 million visits in March 2024, about twice the monthly usage recorded six years earlier.

Behind these numbers are real people and families in communities across the country. At the ANIDA Food Bank, we see the importance of community support firsthand. Food donations help us provide families with access to nutritious and culturally appropriate food, while volunteers and community partners help make that support possible.

This Thanksgiving, share what you have.

A bag of groceries. A few pantry staples. A box filled by your workplace or community group. A few hours spent volunteering. Every contribution can help put food on a family’s table and remind them that they are part of a community that cares.

We are grateful to our corporate partners, including Chick-fil-A Rutherford Road & Highway 400, TD Bank, and Plan Group, for sharing their resources and supporting the ANIDA Food Bank this Thanksgiving season.

Thank you to everyone who is helping make this season one of sharing.

Want to help?

If you would like to donate, please donate to: https://anidafoodbank.org/donate/#donate-funds-section. You can also support the ANIDA Food Bank by organizing a workplace food drive or volunteering with your team.

Please reach out to us: https://anidafoodbank.org/corporate/

Have non-perishable food items to share? Help support local families this Thanksgiving by dropping off your food donation at:

ANIDA Food Bank
4401 Steeles Ave W
North York, ON | M3N 2S4

Chick-Fil-A Rutherford Rd & Hwy 400

3255 Rutherford Rd D

Concord, ON | L4K 5Y5

(Only Through September 25th – October 8th, 2026)

Resources:

1. https://torontosun.com/news/food-insecurity-in-canada-has-hit-crisis-level-millions-of-canadians-going-hungry