For over 40 years, our services have been connecting people to good food. The Stop’s Drop-in Meal program extends across two sites in Toronto’s West End, bringing vibrant, fresh, and healthy meals to our community daily. Our food bank distributes well-balanced and nutritious hampers to food insecure households.

We need your support to keep this critical work going. As food insecurity skyrockets due to issues such as inflation, rising rents and inadequate social security, we're seeing more people need us while our own costs rise. 

Read more about our work in the last year here.

Watch our 40th anniversary video here.

Our Food Bank

Our food bank offers fresh, nutritious hampers in a safe, welcoming, and dignified environment. The food bank is set up like a shop, and community members select the items they prefer for their hamper. This model promotes a stronger sense of dignity and personal agency, and enhances community connections as members interact with staff and volunteers when selecting their items. For a single hamper, a service user is typically offered a choice of 10 fruit and vegetable options. This does not include staple items like carrots, potatoes, and onions which are offered separately. Variety changes regularly, in line with seasonal availability. 

Between September 2022 to August 23, 21,570 individuals were reached through our food bank. On average, our food bank served 839 households per month, with a 52% increase in new food bank memberships compared to last year. And most significantly, in less than six months, the cost of a single hamper increased from $60 (February 2023) to $85 (June 2023).

Our Drop-In Meals

Our Drop-in program offers healthy, culturally sensitive meals every day across two of our locations: 1884 Davenport and Wychwood Open Door. Our menu is designed by our talented community chefs, and preparation and service are supported by a team of dedicated volunteers and frontline staff. Meals are served in our drop-in spaces, with community members seated at round tables and served by volunteers and staff. This serviced approach, which The Stop has embraced for over 18 years, ensures a dignified, welcoming experience, conducive to building and strengthening community connections.

We served 76,739 fresh, nutritious meals this year. We maintain our commitment to fresh, local food, with 60% of our Drop-in program budget spent on local products. Milk, eggs, and root vegetables are sourced locally throughout the year. We deliver programming in the drop-in spaces before and after mealtimes, and 50% of our service users engage in these community-building activities, such as art tables, movies, karaoke, and bingo. This year, we also offered additional services through external providers, such as adult digital literacy sessions, legal services, haircuts, and yoga. 

Thank you for your support. Any contribution will help us feed change and build community in our west Toronto neighbourhood.