Frequently Asked Questions - The Stop

The Stop began as one of the nation’s first food banks almost 30 years ago, growing out of the ministry of Reverend Cam Russell at St. Stephen-in-the-Fields Parish. In 1982, The Stop was officially incorporated as a non-profit organization. Since that time, The Stop has carried out its anti-hunger work in a number of locations, and since 1995 has been at its current home of 1884 Davenport Rd.

The Stop is primarily in the business of ensuring that everyone in our community has enough safe, good quality food to have a healthy life – without having to resort to emergency measures.

At the community level, The Stop contributes to community food security by giving people the skills to choose, prepare and grow food, thereby becoming more food secure. Our community kitchens and gardens draw people together around food, which not only increases their access to food, but also reduces social isolation and builds networks between individuals.

At the provincial level, The Stop and other food security advocates look at the policies that have shaped our current food system, and how they can be improved to increase community food security. As a result, we’ve engaged in advocacy on income security, and are working with Public Health officials to point to links between healthy food and disease prevention.

The Stop’s mission is to increase access to healthy food in a manner that maintains dignity, builds hope, and challenges inequality. All of our programs are based on the belief that food is a basic human right.

The Stop achieves its mission by combining respectful, emergency food delivery with a variety of community-building programs.

Every year, we gather qualitative and quantitative information on our programs to assess their impact. Data collected includes information on how many people were served, how much food was distributed, how many volunteers and volunteer hours were involved etc.

In addition to statistical information, we also conduct an annual survey of our program participants for their views on program effectiveness, and general feedback about The Stop. Last year, for example, 51% of our participants indicated that coming to The Stop had a positive impact on their health, and 61% said they’d learned something at The Stop.

The key difference between The Stop and a regular foodbank is our approach to the issue of food insecurity. We know that although food banks do provide a temporary solution to hunger, they do nothing to address the underlying issues that lead to hunger, poverty and social isolation.

At The Stop, our approach to hunger goes beyond food hamper handouts. We actively involve people in growing and preparing food, and we encourage them to speak out on the issues that lead to poverty. At The Stop we’re creating gardeners, cooks and engaged citizens, rather than passive recipients of charity. We use food to build skills, confidence, hope, health, and understanding across cultures.

We serve low-income, homeless or marginally housed and socially isolated community members who live between Bloor Street (south), St. Clair Avenue (north), Dovercourt Road (east) and Runnymede Road (west). Our population is diverse – our program participants come from 32 countries and speak 16 languages.

These different groups are brought together by a lack of adequate income with which to purchase nutritious food that ensures good health. For example, the median after-rent income per person per day for our community members is $5.80 and 66% of our participants report that they have no money left for food or any other expense after they have paid rent. The Stop is a critical resource for many of the most vulnerable people in our community.

We believe that food banks are not the answer to poverty and hunger, and are instead a band-aid solution. We believe that long term solutions to poverty and hunger can only be fully realized through social supports that provide enough income for individuals to purchase adequate amounts of healthy food and are actively involved in advocating for the same.

Group and individual tours are available for both our main site at 1884 Davenport Road and The Green Barn at 601 Christie Street. For more information, please visit our Tours page or email us at tours [at] thestop [dot] org.