From the start, one of our core goals was to be a good community member—to become a hub for community engagement and learning. Of course, over the past six months, we’ve been unable to host events or engage as directly with our community as we would have liked, so when one of our regular guests suggested we connect with a pair of local organizations working to combat hunger in our neighbourhood, we jumped at the chance to help. Given that we hadn’t been able to serve food inside our restaurant, we quickly committed to providing 50 meals each week to both the South Riverdale Community Health Centre (SRCHC) and Mustard Seed at Fontbonne Ministries.
Since March, both organizations have had to shut down all indoor and in-person operations at a time when people most needed help. But Mustard Seed and the SRCHC realized that even if they couldn’t provide their full range of services, they could still help feed the most marginalized members of the community. “What was really clear to us is people were going hungry, so we pivoted and put all our attention into food,” says AnnMarie Marcolin, the program Director of Mustard Seed, a low-barrier drop-in that’s been helping vulnerable people meet their basic needs in Toronto’s East End for over 20 years.
Mustard Seed now provides free food to those in need every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and Avling is proud to provide the Sunday meal. “I’m really left gobsmacked,” says Marcolin. “These are strangers of strangers of strangers, and we were asking if we could purchase sandwiches, and [Avling] listened to everything and at the end said, ‘No, we’ll provide pro bono.’”
The SRCHC typically centres arounds providing primary healthcare, social and community outreach services with an emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention, but now much of their work focuses on making sure people don’t go hungry. “We had to develop a plan to assist our most vulnerable program clients in accessing food,” says Andrea Laing, SRCHC’s communications manager. “Local businesses like Avling came forward to assist in providing support for us to be able to offer take-away meals to many of our clients facing homelessness.”
As the weather gets colder and the pandemic continues to affect the economy, this work will only become more important. “We’re seeing more people that are street-involved,” says Marcolin. “We’re seeing things we haven’t seen before—people who might be able to pay their rent but still need food.” Laing concurs, noting that “the root of the food security problem is poverty,” and more people are struggling as a result of layoffs and the economic downturn.
At Avling, we intend to keep doing our part. A number of meals are now subsidized by government grants received by the non-profits, but we’ll always supplement on our end to make sure we’re providing the most marginalized members of our community with the same quality ingredients we serve our paying guests. It’s important that we provide the most nutritious, portable and balanced meals possible—a challenge our kitchen team has taken to heart with delicious sandwiches, chili, roasted vegetables and more.
In addition to providing food directly to these two great non-profits, we’re also currently donating all proceeds from the sale of our Isolation Nation beer to Black Creek Community Farm, a unique eight-acre farm in the Jane and Finch area that increases access to healthy food through educational programming and food distribution projects, and virtual healthcare provider No Wait Walk-In. The Isolation Nation project was initially created to help breweries affected by the shutdown, with select breweries across Canada making a beer using the same malts and hops generously donated by BSG CraftBrewing and Hops Connect, but we decided it was best to pay that generosity forward.
Community is paramount. We’re lucky to count on ours to step up and help us when times are tough, just as we try to do for others. If you can help now, we urge you to check out these great organizations (linked above) and join us. Every bit makes a difference.