The Avenue Road Food Bank is a Daily Bread member food bank located in and operated by the Church of the Messiah. We provide weekly food support to community families and individuals. We are supported by dedicated volunteers, our partners, and many generous donors.
The Avenue Road Food Bank can no longer take new registrations onsite. Please register at dailybread.ca to be directed to your closest food bank.
Register here
https://dailybread.link2feed.ca/
DB Locations here.
https://www.dailybread.ca/need-food/programs-by-location/
We are open with enhanced COVID-19 protections and protocols. We have returned to grocery shopping model. Each guest may select their own groceries.
Location: Church of the Messiah (240 Avenue Road, Toronto)
Entrance: Doors marked ”Bell Tower” at the corner of Dupont and Avenue
Open Hours: Wednesday, 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Giving to The Church of the Messiah
Financial support maintains the life and work of the church.
You may give in person during a service through the collection plate by cheque or in cash. You may also mail a donation to the church office.
You may give online and receive an immediate tax receipt through our Canada Helps page. You may make a one-time gift or set up a monthly donation to help the church plan ahead.
If you wish to give directly to the Foodbank, on the right side of the Canada Helps page you will find a drop down menu under “Apply your donation to a fund set up by this charity* and choose “Avenue Road Food Bank”
If you wish to give by cheque: the cheque should be made out to Church of the Messiah with foodbank in the “RE:” space.
Give online from The Church of the Messiah’s Canada Helps page.
ARFB Report (for Dec. 17, 2024)
Our last day of service before we close for two weeks! We have had lists of other food banks that will be operating during our closure for our guests, and dailybread.ca also has all the hours on their site.
From last week:
427 households
833 individuals
Back up to our average, with a steady stream of people to 4:30, then little breaks here and there. Marketa snagged us more than 400 bunches of bananas from Second Harvest, which were greeted with great enthusiasm! Our inventory held, and everyone went home happy.
Councillor Dianne Saxe dropped by to help out for an hour – she watched over the children’s table, making sure everyone left with clothes or books or toys.
Afternoon volunteers – please remember to dress up for the day! Festive sweaters (ugly or not), hats, lights, sparkles – whatever makes you happy. We will have some wonderful surprises for our guests, including 300 cooked chickens, 200 samosa, and 200 naan bread purchased by a very generous neighbour. She also had her students make greeting cards with candy treats. And we have a HUGE amount of miscellaneous collected, so everyone will get a choice from that table too.
The Shire School dropped off more than 600 food items on Thursday, and Brown coming tomorrow. If anyone is available to help sort this afternoon, the Jackman donation will be dropped off at 1:30pm today. It shouldn’t take too long to put into crates, but a few extra hands would be a great help!
Also, we DO collect hats and gloves and scarves and outwear to hand out, if you have old winter jackets you want to clean out of your closets. Donations of this items are welcome – many of our guests come from warm countries, and are unprepared for our winters here.
And finally… I thank you all for your hard work, dedication, and the cheerful energy that you bring each week to ARFB. Our guests feel welcome and safe when they come through our doors, and you all make a tough situation a little bit easier for each one of them. For 2025, I hope that politicians get their heads out of their asses, that food banks will no longer be a necessity, and each one of our guests finds food security.
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that, some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Hebrews 13:2
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY!!
Email: foodbank@churchofthemessiah.ca
For GTA open food banks and meal programs please check Toronto 211 Information
NEWSLETTERS
For this year’s and earlier newsletters, please select from the list below:
To receive our quarterly newsletters by email, please subscribe to our email list.
Proud partners of
- Daily Bread
- Second Harvest
- Bike Brigade
- and our amazing donors
Volunteering at the Avenue Road Food Bank:
- We are able operate and serve our food bank community because of the time and skills of our many committed volunteers.
- We regularly bring new in volunteers for many roles. Please email us at foodbank@churchofthemessiah.ca with your interest and availability.
- We are always looking for drivers for local food picks and deliveries.
- All volunteers must fill out applications, and sign policy and privacy agreements.
Donations:
- We accept non-perishable food donations on Wednesday mornings at the ”Bell Tower” door.
- We are NOT currently accepting clothing donations.
- Monetary donations support food and supply purchases made by the food bank – see Donations for information.
We are committed to providing food to our community. We have safety protocols in place during COVID-19.
