On October 31, 2011 between 6:00 p.m. and closing; visit any Chipotle Mexican Grill location dressed in a costume inspired by the family farm, and enjoy a meal for just $2 (burrito/order of tacos/salad/burrito bowl). Proceeds from the initiative, up to $1 million, will be donated to the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation and Farm Aid.

Visit the Chipotle Mexican Grill Website to find a location nearest you and to read up on more details — CLICK HERE

A Bigger Celebration for the Smaller Farms

This Halloween,  Chipotle is celebrating family farms and their dedication to the land they live on and the delicious food they produce. To join in on the party, head into any Chipotle on Halloween from 6 pm to closing dressed in a costume inspired by the family farm and they’ll hook you up with a burrito, bowl, salad, or an order of tacos made with responsibly raised ingredients for just $2.

Have some fun with your costumes. Think crops, farm tools, tractors, silos, or farm animals. Get the proverbial creative juices flowing and you might have a shot at winning a prize in the Costume Contest.

In support of our family farming friends, we’re donating the proceeds, up to $1,000,000 to The Chipotle Cultivate Foundation and Farm Aid, two non-profit organizations working to keep farmers on the land and nurture a better agricultural system.

A Karaoke Party to Benefit Heart and Stroke Foundation  & Daily Bread Food Bank

Wednesday June 22nd, 2011 at 7pm at the Loose Moose!

Featuring Extreme Karoake:

$2 donation to sing – $5 donation for an audio performance burned to CD and $10 donation performance burned on DVD!

Don’t forget about the amazing silent auction items!

The Loose Moose Location:  146 Front Street West – Toronto ON, M5J1G2

Visit the Loose Moose website for a full menu and more details — CLICK HERE

HUNGER AWARENESS CHALLENGE

Each year, Daily Bread Food Bank spends over a million dollars purchasing specific nutritious food. The Daily Bread Food Bank wants to ensure that what is being distributed to people in need consists of adequate amounts of protein, dairy, grains and fresh produce.

The Daily Bread Food Bank distributes over 72,000 hamper boxes a month across Toronto. Items in these food boxes include: dried pasta, pasta sauce, beans, mac & cheese, eggs, bread, fresh produce, milk, tuna, peanut butter, soup and detergent. With the current 7-8% increase in food prices, Daily Bread faces a challenging year ahead.

This is where you come in! You can fundraise online right here and get your colleagues to pledge $25 for a hamper box.

Simply click on “Register Your Team” and our easy registration will take you through the process quickly. Once you’re done, you will not only be registered to run a food drive, you’ll also have your very own fundraising page to collect donations! Add a team logo, write your own message and watch the goal thermometer rise as you grow closer to your goal!

Many people appreciate being able to donate quickly and easily through your secure fundraising page. And although the Daily Bread Food Bank greatly rely on food donations, they appreciate bring “able to purchase” items that are not often donated, such as baby formula, more cost-effectively from our contacts in the food industry.

Your supporters will receive an automatic emailed tax receipt for donations over $10.

Hunger is a reality for thousands of people in Toronto. You can make a difference today! It’s fast, easy and fun!

To get started, click here.

The Stop Community Food Centre announces that it has selected two Ontario towns, Perth and Stratford, as the first pilot sites to replicate The Stop’s innovative community food centre model, where food is used to build health, skills, and community. This unique and unprecedented collaboration is the first phase of a process that The Stop hopes will eventually bring the CFC model to every community in the country.

The Stop began life in the 1970s as one of Canada’s first food banks, and has been on the frontlines of confronting hunger ever since. Over the years, in order to confront the root causes of poverty, poor nutrition and social isolation, the non-profit organization has evolved into a thriving, holistic community centre offering a wide range of services and initiatives, including several community gardens and kitchens; after school cooking and gardening programs; a farmers’ market; community advocacy training; a nutritional support program for new and expectant mothers; and a sustainable food systems education centre. On a recent visit to Toronto, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver said of The Stop: “I’ve travelled all around the world, and I’ve never seen anything like The Stop. Every city should have one.”

“The Stop is a grassroots approach to tackling some of the really big problems we have in our food system: diet-related illness, disappearing farmland, deepening poverty,” says Nick Saul, The Stop’s Executive Director. “There’s so much interest in food at the moment, and what good food can do for people and communities. We get calls and visits almost every day from other organizations interested in our approach.” Saul says the pilot process will be geared toward measuring the impact that multifaceted food centres can have on individual and community health to make the case that society needs to invest in more community food centres. “Traditionally, food programs have been run out of basements on a shoestring. We’re going to try to change that, to aim higher and to build a vibrant funding program that brings public and private money together to support these programs at the level they deserve.”

In the fall of 2010, a committee from The Stop, with funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion’s Healthy Communities Fund and The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, set out to locate other communities who could most effectively adapt The Stop’s model for their own needs. After considering several locations, Perth and Stratford were chosen because of the combination of need and local infrastructure, as well as the strong and diverse set of local partners who share The Stop’s philosophy and are prepared to drive the project forward.

In Perth, The Stop will be partnering with the Perth and District Food Bank, a food bank whose staff and volunteers have decided to re-invent their organization. The food bank has recently purchased a 1960s-era stucco church which, once it is retrofitted with a kitchen and garden, will house their CFC.

“We are excited about the opportunity to work with The Stop to create a version of a community food centre that re-creates the powerful, and exciting programs that we see at The Stop, but that is also relevant to our community,” says Nancy Wildgoose, a local resident who has been one of the driving forces behind the CFC initiative in Perth. Wildgoose envisions dining programs for seniors, healthy cooking programs for young parents and kids living on low incomes, community gardening programs open to the whole community and social enterprise initiatives as some of the options that hold promise for Perth.

In Stratford, the United Way of Perth-Huron is the lead partner and will incubate the project. “Our Food Security Coalition has been working on re-imagining the approach to food security in our community. This is a wonderful opportunity to enhance the range of programs that we can offer and develop other partnerships within the county,” says Ellen Balmain the Executive Director of the United Way of Perth- Huron. “We are thrilled that Stratford was chosen as one of the locations for The Stop’s project.” A location is currently being sought for the new project. Balmain points to the richness of the local food landscape, with the many successful restaurants, chef’s school and Slow Food movement as potentially powerful allies in this project. As with the Town of Perth, the rural environment will present new opportunities to address issues related to local farming and farm families.

For more information on The Stop Community Centre or on how you can volunteer/donate visit – http://www.thestop.org/home

The Daily Bread Food Bank is gearing up for the Spring Drive!

Whether you are new to Daily Bread Food Bank or a long-time friend,
They’re glad to have your partnership and support.

Thank you for your generous past support of feeding hungry people in our communities.

With the Spring Drive on from April 1st to April 26th, 2011, now is the time to start planning your food and fund drive.

Why wait? Register your food and fund drive today!

Thank you for your continued support!

Join The Daily Bread Food Bank on April 29th for the 6th Annual Gala: Postcards from a Hungry City, hosted by CBC’s Mary Ito

and keynote speaker Matt Galloway. Experience some of the challenging and poignant choices being made every day, and
celebrate the strength in adversity. Postcards from a Hungry City gives you a snapshot of the real-life chronicles of those
facing hunger and poverty.

Second Harvest has officially launched their 13^th annual Lunch Money Day campaign. Taking place on Thursday, February 17^th. Lunch Money Day encourages Torontonians to donate the equivalent of what they would usually spend on lunch to Second Harvest. Every $5 donation enables Second Harvest to provide enough fresh food for 10 nutritious meals to feed the city’s hungry.

To meet their $330,000 target, Second Harvest is looking for companies, schools and individuals to sign up and get involved by running their own Lunch Money Day campaign. Campaigns are  fun, easy and can take place in the office, school or home.

Here are some fun ways to raise money and help feed those in need:

• Hold a bake sale
• Host a dress down day and have participants make a donation for the opportunity to wear casual clothes
• Host a sponsored lunch, i.e. pizza party, potluck, and have participants make a donation to partake in the meal
• Sell Lunch Money Day raffle tickets
• Host a Wii Tournament with a set entrance fee

All participants are encouraged to create their own Lunch Money Day fundraising page at
lunchmoneyday.com so employees and students can watch their donations grow.

Take action and fight hunger in Toronto. Sign up your company or school today at
lunchmoneyday.com or call Alex Tindale at 416.408.2594.

About Second Harvest
Second Harvest is a charitable organization that takes a common-sense approach to hunger. For
the past 25 years, we have been picking up donated, perishable food, which would otherwise go
to waste, and delivering it to more than 200 social service agencies in Toronto. Independent
research group Charity Intelligence Canada has endorsed Second Harvest for its efficiency,
conscientious administration, and high return to the community for every dollar donated. In
addition, MoneySense magazine recently awarded an “A” grade to Second Harvest, naming it
one of the most responsible charitable groups in Canada.

For more information or to schedule an interview with a campaign spokesperson, please
contact:

Tonia Krauser
Director of Communications, Second Harvest
416.625.6774
toniak@secondharvest.ca

As part of the popular Food For Change Dinner Series, the Stop’s acclaimed chef Chris Brown (former Executive Chef of Perigee Restaurant) presents an intimate dining experience in support of one of many “fight for hunger” campaigns and make a change.

One Thursday each month, Chef Brown will prepare a great five course meal featuring local, sustainable food, savoured in the greenhouse of the Stop’s fabulous Green Barn at Christie and St. Clair.

Come out to support a good cause and experience some delicious fine food prepared by a world class chef.

If you want to see what it’s like in a professional kitchen join the kitchen crew and help prepare the feast.

This month, Chris is joined in the kitchen by Chef Bertrand Alepee (formely of Amuse Bouche) and pastry chef extraordinaire Steven Song (formerly of Senses).

The meal is $75, with wine pairing $120, kitchen crew $100

——

Menu — January 20, 2011

(Menu subject to change without notice)

Celery root velouté with Ontario stilton mousse, red cabbage chutney and toasted walnuts
(Chris Brown)

East coast haddock with glazed crosnes, broccoli rabe and horseradish emulsion sauce
(Chris Brown)

Roasted veal sweetbreads with seared scallops over a root vegetable puree and sautéed black trumpet mushrooms
(Bertrand Alépée)

Hunter elk plate: Lightly seared Ontario elk with spiced spatzle, pine jus and wood fire-roasted chestnuts
(Bertrand Alépée)

Ode to street sweets. A trio of a mini Boston cream doughnut, a vanilla éclair and a espresso mousse
(Steven Song)

For more information about The Stop click here to visit their site.