ANNUAL REPORT 2025

 Weston Park Baptist Church ran their first “door to door” food drive in 1994 and have done so ever since.  The church members organize and collect food from generous community members.  This year they collected over 6,000 lbs of food that was then sorted and will be distributed to the community in the next few months. 

2025:  WAES experienced a 34% increase in visits in January 2025.  This increase shocked us, and made it clear it was going to be a tough year.  Luckily things settled down a bit, but for the first 6 months we were seeing an average of 3,380 visits per month, 16% more than 2024.  WAES needed to take a hard look at this increasing need, and how we were going to manage moving forward. We were struggling to keep up with demand. The difficult decision was made to stop accepting new registrations in June.  We worked with North York Harvest to ensure people had a food bank to go to for the rest of the year.  We also found out that another food bank was going to open in the south part of our catchment area.  We worked with this new food bank, and North York Harvest, to figure out our respective boundaries.  In the last 3 months of 2025, people living in the south part of our area (approximately 20% of clients) were redirected to the new food bank.  In 2026 we will reopen registrations to those living in our catchment and expect that this number of people will be replaced quickly.

WAES is about community, and the stories of the people who come for support.  In June a woman came to see if she could pick up groceries.  She had not been to WAES in 7 years.  We remembered her, as she had always been positive even when things were tough.  She had raised her 3 children, and once they had moved out, she no longer needed to come to WAES.  We wished her well.  In the spring of 2025, her son lost his job, and his marriage fell apart.  He moved back with his mother and brought his 2 children.  Venus needed help from WAES again.  She remains positive and is so thankful for our support.  She said “you helped me feed my children, now you are helping me feed my grandchildren.  Thank you for being here for us”.  Every person who comes to WAES has thought long and hard before they show up at our doors.  They do everything they can, but due to a variety of circumstances they realize they need help.  Each person has a story – of illness; job loss; ever increasing costs outweighing their income; family breakdown.  There is rarely a day that we don’t share tears with one of our community members. 

WAES, like food banks across the country, knows that we can’t keep up with the growing need.  All levels of government could do more to support people.  Social assistance and disability benefits need to be overhauled so that they provide enough support to sustain people.  Old Age Security needs to be improved.  Creative solutions for housing must be found and implemented.   There are answers, but it is not food banks.

STATISTICS:

These charts demonstrate the continuation of the growth of food bank use in York South Weston.  Unfortunately, we do not believe that these numbers will decrease without significant change to the supports people receive. 

1. WAES saw an average of 3,400 visits per month in 2025, up from 3,090 in 2024.  This increase came even though we closed off registration for new participants as of June 2025.

2. The total visits for 2025 were 41,451.  That equates to over 370,000 meals.     

3. There is a disproportionately higher percent of BIPOC people coming to WAES.  Over 78% of the people receiving food support are Black, Indigenous, People of Colour. 

4. Families with children are struggling. Again, this year 33% of those we help are under 18, versus only 20% of the total population.

5. Seniors are also growing as a percentage of those supported by WAES.  In 2025 13% receiving food were over 65. 

6. Thirty-seven percent of those coming for help live in households of 5 or more people.  Many of these are multigenerational.  9% are single people living alone.

 SUPPORTS:

WAES continues to have dedicated and generous donors.  We have a healthy mix of businesses, foundations, service clubs and individuals that see the need in our community and respond with financial, food and volunteer support. This year our top 3 donors, Weston Golf Club Charity Tournament, Rochon Building Corporation and Weston Lions donated at total of $190,000! We are so fortunate.  Thank you all.

FINANCIAL DONORS

INDIVIDUAL DONORS:  Individual donors step up month in and month out to ensure that we have the funds to keep the doors of WAES open to our community.  WAES has nearly 300 individual donors. We also have 22 monthly donors sending us a total of $2K each month through CanadaHelps .  Every one of these donors has a reason to support WAES, and for that we are grateful. 

FOUNDATIONS, SERVICE AND FAITH ORGANIZATIONS:  (Alphabetic order)

100 Women Who Care-Toronto West; Diana, Tammy, Orysia; Knights of Columbus 3945; Rocky and Noellie; Weston Lions; Roy the famous French fry guy and Addie.

   Weston Golf Club; Carol (WGCC), Suzette (Yorktown), Rikki (WKNC), Diana (WAES); Arbor Memorial Foundation; Scott Funeral home staff, Edna (WAES); Rochon Building Corp; Ilam, Nicole and Connor Rochon with WAES volunteers

FOOD DRIVES DONATIONS (Alphabetical)

Veritas Corp purchased $5K of requested food from the Superstore; Jane and her son from Rotary Club West Toronto food drive; Ravi and staff from FreshCo Denison supports WAES all year long; Central United and Weston Presbyterian group put together backpacks for children

NON-FINANCIAL SUPPORT:

CENTRAL UNITED CHURCH:  WAES continues to call Central United Church home.  The staff and congregation are very supportive of our needs as we continue to require more space to receive, sort, stock and distribute ever increasing quantities of food.

NORTH YORK HARVEST and SECOND HARVEST:  We receive weekly deliveries of perishable and non-perishable goods.  These deliveries are a source of food that assists our ability to meet WAES’s need.  In 2025 these deliveries represent about 20% of our food requirements.

“Thank you so very much! I'm grateful for whatever you have available.  I was wondering if there is any pet food available. I know it's a lot to ask, so I completely understand if it's not.  I was just hopeful that you might, as I have an aging dog who I luv very much! Again, thank you for doing this for me!”  Email from Sylvia, a community member May 2025.  We do provide pet food for our community

VOLUNTEER SUPPORT:

Chris our MVR weekly shopper; Thursday volunteer team; Dec 16 Holiday Hamper distribution team including 12 Division Officers; Board members and Humber placement students. 

“Just sending a special thank you of appreciation for your leadership working side by side with us as a team whether we are filling bags with nonperishable/perishable items or even diapers in order to serve the clients in this community. More and more bins are needed to be filled but you both are able to keep everything functioning extremely well.  It definitely is no easy task and takes working in harmony and a genuine goal purpose of serving. I enjoy working at WAES and look forward to 2026.” Email from Viva, an ongoing volunteer Dec 2025

WAES is blessed with over 55 dedicated and amazing volunteers. We are also fortunate to be led by our hard working, supportive and very organized Food Bank Manager, Noellie Sotomayor.  Noellie makes sure WAES runs like clockwork so that we can provide good food to our community.  Many volunteers show up to WAES at least once a week to do a shift unloading trucks, date checking, stocking shelves or distributing groceries.  Chris, Gary, Ken, Edna, Andy and Joe regularly drive their own vehicles to pick up groceries and donations from MVR Cash and Carry, FreshCo, Weston Superstore and local schools. We are fortunate to have generous donors that also volunteer – both on a short-term basis like Marco from Veritas, or Nicole from Rochon, and on a regular basis like Roy from Weston Lions and Antonia from Kindred Foundation.  Since 2021 we have given placement opportunities to students from Humber College and Guelph Humber.  Students do anywhere from 100 to 400 placement hours at WAES.  They learn valuable skills while helping us by answering our phone to set up our appointments.  They also work on the front lines distributing groceries and helping our community members.  A number of our students have continued to volunteer even after their placement is over. Our Steering Committee members are also volunteers.  They work hard in the community, at WAES and at our meetings to ensure that we continue to follow our mission to serve our community with care and compassion.

“Dear WAES team! Thank you so much for your kindness, generosity and dedicated work! Every time to have a food is a blessing. Especially when I’m sick (suffer from depression, anxiety and back pain, can’t stand and cook at the kitchen). The coffee, honey, pickles, olives, beetroot, sauerkraut, canned peaches, toiletries, that you provide as “extras” make it like a Christmas for me!” Letter from a Ukrainian community member Sept 2025

FINAL NOTE:

Make no mistake, low income, fixed income and precarious employment are the causes of food insecurity and food bank use.  As costs continue to rise, people working low-income jobs, or on government assistance; be it Old Age Security, Disability Benefits or Social Assistance; are not able to cope.  This is a crisis, with food banks and meal programs feeling the overwhelming demand.  Since 2020 food bank use has continued to rise. More working people need to access food support.  Jobs that used to cover a person’s costs, allowing them to pay their rent and feed their families, are no longer sufficient.  Talk to your local politicians and tell them you want supports that will help raise people up. Supports like affordable housing, universal childcare, living wage, accessible education, appropriate newcomer supports and training programs.   Then maybe one day we can close our food bank.  Until that day, thank you to everybody for supporting WAES

WAES Steering Committee: Diana Stapleton (Chair), Leslie Haller (Secretary), Edna Harding (Treasurer) Robert Heath, Norma Kent, Stephen Mabee, Sandy McCamus, Rob Parsons, Ken Sisson, Joe Swain.

Established in 1986

1 King St, Central United Church                                                                                               

416-247-3737

info@waes.ca

https://sites.google.com/view/waesfoodbank/home

Charitable Organization #119295202RR0001