Parkdale Food Centre

The community that O-R-G-A-N-I-Z-E-S together, picnics together! Congratulations to the Advocacy In Motion participants who, through the help of a Community Food Centres Canada microgrant, were able to bring together Ottawa Centre MP Yasir Naqvi, staff, and Neighbours to exchange ideas around Federal Government policy changes, including adequately funding and enhancing the upcoming Canada Disability Benefit, creating a Groceries and Essentials Benefit, and committing to reducing food Insecurity in Canada by 50% by 2030.

Hearing our Advocacy in Motion participants speak to these issues was extremely powerful and will have lasting impacts. Thank you to all involved in setting our community’s advocacy in motion! 🍎❤

On the community kitchen menu this week:

📸 1: Okonomiyaki with Bok Choy from
📸 2: Shakshuka with peppers and tomatoes from
📸 3: Tomato-fennel soup with extra tomatoes from ... !!!!

We're celebrating the incredible flavours of local produce 💚🍅 Thanks to our community's support for local agriculture, these fresh and delicious dishes are made possible. Local ingredients not only taste AMAZING but also support our dedicated, local farmers and strengthen our food community. ✨

By contributing to our Farm-to-Table fund (I!nk in b!o) you help keep this delicious cycle going. Local food rules 🤘🏻, a win for everyone!

Our food system is complex and how we interact with it matters - for our health, our community, and our planet. But oftentimes high-quality, locally produced food isn’t accessible to individuals and families living on low incomes.

That’s why partners who share our values are so important: “We hope to provide greater access to tasty, nutrient rich food! Something that we wish all people to have access to,” says Luke, owner of Terramor Farm.

Our new farm-to-table partnership with Terramor Farm, a local farm invested in our community, is part of our commitment to bringing everyone good food - no matter their income.

Delivering on this commitment means we purchase nearly 100% of food for our Community Kitchen and it’s important that we do so by investing in local, sustainable food systems. “Building an equitable relationship where both Parkdale Food Centre and local growers can benefit is a win/win scenario.We believe in the importance of supporting local food systems and the vital role they play in addressing food insecurity," says Simon, our Community Kitchen Manager

Donate today to our Farm-to-Table fund and we’ll make good food possible by supporting local farmers, like Terramor Farm: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/102789

As we approach our Annual General Meeting where we welcome new board members, we thank Deb Abbott, our outgoing Board Chair, for her remarkable contributions and unwavering dedication. Deb has shaped the future of Parkdale Food Centre (PFC) and impacted countless lives in our community.

Deb first started volunteering at PFC nine years ago, preparing meals for youth who were joining Thirteen for the first time. Over the years, her presence in our Community Kitchen grew to support our programs and connect us to the community, from sharing nourishing delicious food for celebrations, to making the best cup of tea when you really need a listening ear.

Deb's leadership saw us through unprecedented challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic, realignment to our mission in the aftermath, and through the impacts of funding cuts in 2023. But Deb's commitment to our Neighbours helped us not only return to a place of strength and joy, but grow as a community support, investing in community advocacy and the transformation of our Grocery Program.

The shift from a "Food Bank" to "Groceries" has had a profound impact on the community, offering dignity and a sense of normalcy to our Neighbours. “Making this big change has been so impactful, especially for our Neighbours. A Neighbour recently said to me, ‘sorry Deb can’t talk right now, I have to run to get my groceries.’ That made me so proud."

Deb's time as Chair has profoundly influenced her, deepening her advocacy and empathy for our neighbours. She is committed to influencing politicians and supporting universal income, believing it would greatly benefit the community.

“Knowing what I know helps to ensure that I can be a stronger advocate for better conditions for our neighbours. An important piece of this is knowing how much a universal income would benefit our neighbours. They don’t need access to rescued food or to a food bank, they need the income to choose their own food. I plan to continue advocating for our Neighbours to our politicians and other national Not-for-Profits.”

Deb leaves us with a powerful message about the importance of our mission: "Food is so powerful – it has the power to make you feel secure and safe, to connect you to culture, to your family, and to your community."

Thank you Deb for your tireless efforts and unwavering commitment. Your legacy at Parkdale Food Centre will continue to inspire and guide us as we move forward. Share your favorite memories or messages for Deb in the comments below, and please join us in thanking her for her leadership and support! 🍎❤

🍎 Join us for the Parkdale Food Centre Annual General Meeting (AGM)! 🍎

🗓 Date: Thursday, June 20
⏰ Time: 6pm (doors open, 5:30pm)
📍 Location: Hintonburg Community Centre

Whether you're a member or just curious about our work, we'd love to have you join our journey to building strong neighbourhoods.

Learn about our impact over the last year, meet our Board Member nominees and say goodbye to our outgoing members, Deb and Parisa. Your attendance will help shape the future of our work!

From using preferred names and pronouns, to advocating for Neighbour access to inclusive spaces and services, to visibly displaying the progress pride flag, at Parkdale Food Centre we strive to create an environment where all Neighbours can be authentically themselves.

This Pride Month, we're highlighting the work of organizations making meaningful impact in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community:
❤️
🧡 Kind Space
💛 Capital Rainbow Refuce
💚 Ottawa Trans Library
💙 CCGSD-CCDGS
💜

Through partnerships and conversations we're always learning how we can better support the individual needs of all our Neighbours. Happy Pride! 🍎❤️

We asked for rhubarb, you gave us rhubarb! (But keep it coming, we love it!)

Food security is not about having any food, but having food that is nutritious, safe, and produced in environmentally sustainable ways. When Neighbours share their garden harvests, everyone in the community can enjoy beautiful local food, regardless of income or access to growing space. When we share with our community, we ALL grow.

Thank you all so much! You stocked our shelves with cereal. Your financial and physical donations made all the difference!
You made this happen for our neighbours 🍎

CAN YOU HELP US RESTOCK OUR SHELVES? We’ve run out of low sugar cereal at our Mino’Weesini Grocery Program. Here are two ways you can help us restock:

1 - purchase low sugar cereal and drop off your donation at our grocery location - 5 Hamilton Ave. N. Drop off donations will be accepted Monday - Thursday, 9am to 3pm.

2 - donate online so we can purchase cereal for our Neighbours: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/11187?v2=true

☀️Anyone else feeling summer vibes today?? 😎

📢Are you a youth aged 15-30 looking for an awesome summer experience? Curious about building strong communities and love meeting new people? We’re looking for you! Join our team as one of four assistant positions this summer, funded in part by the Federal Government's Canada Summer Jobs program.

As a Living Wage Employer, we’re investing in these positions by topping up the subsidy provided by Canada Summer Jobs to ensure these positions are paid a living wage of $21.95/hour

Interested - or know someone who might be? Find out more information and apply at pfc.applytojobs.ca!

We had a verrrry busy community lunch last week but that was NO PROBLEM for Immaculata HS' 'Caring for Others' class. Huge thanks to those students for their hustle, they served 150 soup and salads like total pros.

Hey look at this!!!!!
Head to: https://www.google.com/url?sa=j&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpfc.applytojobs.ca%2Fgrowing%2520futures%2F29849&uct=1709583832&usg=NdYbV7-T0CwWNKLUFFbvAaOB3zs.&opi=73833047&source=chat for all the details! Know someone you think would be great? Send it their way. 🙏🏻🙏🏻 Application deadline May 9th. Got any questions? Email [email protected] and ask them!

"How does food make you feel?"
"Show me your "struggle meal"
"What does your favourite childhood plate look like"
Those were a few of our prompts at our collage table at 's *Odyssey - Creativity as a Force for Social Transformation* conference this past weekend. hosted a station during the human library📚, and talked with loads of inspiring people about the work we do, and how we harness creativity in our youth programs to get some SERIOUS BUSINESS accomplished. Such is the Solutionary way! ✨

It is pretty special to leave a weekend conference feeling energized, but that's exactly what happened! The weekend was filled with scheming and laughing with fellow transformative thinkers in the form of youth, educators, lawyers, social workers and the general public of all ages. There was even some singing and kazoo-playing involved. We are incredibly inspired and grateful to share community with people dedicated to shaking things up with some good ole imagination 🌈✨

Congrats to the organizing committee and all of the collaborators on a successful event. A connected community is a strong community 💪🏻

Eid Mubarak to all of our Neighbours near and far celebrating this special time 🕌☪️.
Special shout-out to Inaya (swipe) and Yahya (swipe swipe) for working their entire month of fasting surrounded by food, all while patiently managing people and caring for Neighbours. Wow. Wishing everyone a peaceful Eid al-Fitr 💛

If you have met these two you know they've been the lights of Mino'Weesini since January and we are so sad that their last week is next week 😢. Jade and Lauren are students from Algonquin's 'Bachelor of Early Learning and Community Development' doing their placement with us and we've loved having them on the team 🙏🏻 Over the years we've had some seriously amazing students join us through this program and J&L are no exception. We will miss their awesome personalities but we're not gonna get too sad yet because we still have one week left! THANK YOU, Lauren and Jade ☀️☀️

WOOHOO!!! We are so excited and grateful to be receiving funding from the Rideau Hall Foundation through the Catapult stream!! Our amazing youth programs would not be possible without the .frh.canada team and their support 🙏🏻 thank you for lifting up what we do. Can't wait to share with you what we'll be up to this spring and summer ☀️☀️ so stayyyy tuuuuuned for some Solutionary content as cool as that eclipse! 🌚🌝

Want to join a cool group of people who are as interested in social justice and community development as much as you? Are you free on Wednesday afternoons from April to July? Then look no further! Apply today (or before April 10) by filling out the form at: bit.ly/AIM_PFC , or email questions to [email protected]

Every term, we host a group of resident doctors from the University of Ottawa to speak about Health Advocacy. There are many Social Determinants of Health that Parkdale Food Centre addresses, such as social inclusion, advocacy for income and basic needs, and food security, among other things. We understand some of the challenges that new doctors face, and they expressed it was helpful learning about the problems with food banking and how it impacts those who have to use food banks. We also talked about how we all need to work together to increase access to vital health and community resources, and how we can all use our voices to ensure folks access their basic human rights.

We didn't reach our goal...April Fools! We actually blew past it! Thank you to the 69 NEW monthly donors who joined us in our campaign!

The value of these monthly contributions is $1,880/month, representing $22,560 annually. Additionally, Canada Helps gave us a one-time bonus contribution of $1,380, or $20 for each monthly donor who committed to a monthly donation of at least $20/month.

But enough math, let's move on to our extreme gratitude! Whether you were able to sign up as a donor, share our posts, volunteer, or support or community in other ways, YOU helped us to surpass our goal. You are also the advocates of our community, and you help make this community strong. From the bottom of our apple-shaped hearts, thank you Neighbours.

Another successful visit from Glebe & Brookfield's non-profit SHSM students! These enthusiastic students helped us put away our big delivery, restock all the shelves with beautiful produce and help get the store ready for the next day. It looked great in there 👌🏻

There were so many interesting questions asked, and bless them for packing all of the pet food so we didn't have to 👏🏻. Yay Solutionaries!

WoWeEeE we are up to 43 NEW monthly donors! Thank you so much to all of our community members who help us maintain sustainable funding for our essential programs and services! It helps us to maintain quality in our nourishing food, and address the ever-changing needs of our community.

We have just ✨️6️⃣✨️more days to get to 5️⃣0️⃣ new monthly donors. What do you think...can we do it? Share this post to your network to help!

Today, we had a group in from for our Recipes for Change workshop. We prepared some red lentil dahl and muffins for our Community Lunch tomorrow, while having conversations about food security. This brave group shared some ideas, discussed difficult topics, and committed to continuing in these discussions beyond today. Interested in booking in your group to do this? Contact [email protected] to inquire!

Last Friday, we kicked off a new collaborative program between the PFC and The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre! 🎉

These classes involve a small, closed group of participants and use good food to bring folks living with mental illness and substance use disorders together.

Weekly workshops include guided cooking, a shared meal, and a facilitated (fun) group conversation. Alongside individualized support in participants’ paths to recovery, the sessions are aimed at reducing social isolation, increasing confidence, and promoting independent living skills. ☀️

This week's menu request was mac & cheese and salad! A classic combo!

We’re halfway through the month, and guess what? We not only hit our goal early, but together, we blew past it! We want to wholeheartedly thank the 34 new monthly donors who, in just 15 days, signed up to donate $20+/month. What are some of the things we’re able to do with these financial committments?

🍎Buy fresh food for our Grocery Program for those who need it most

🍎Buy ingredients for our weekly community meals and cooking workshops

🍎Support community-based advocacy and community development

Canada Helps’ Make It Monthly campaign lasts for just another 16 days. 16 is also the number of new monthly donors that would bring our total to 50 new monthly donors in March. If we can do 34 in 15 days, what more can we all do in 16 days? And with Canada Helps donating an additional $20 for every new donor, that would make this March a very special one.

Thank you so much to our amazing community who sees the need and understands the power of good Neighbours 💗

Today is International Women's Day, and some of our team members were invited to City Hall to celebrate at the "Inspire Inclusion" breakfast, hosted by Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and Councillor Ariel Troster. We were honoured to be alongside so many incredible women leaders that are forging positive change in their communities, creating opportunities for others around them to thrive. These leaders are tackling big barriers that women continue to face.

For example, did you know about 80% Canadians who work in social services are women? A sector in which they continue to be overworked and underpaid, while given inadequate resources to treat symptoms, not root causes of our society's biggest challenges.

Women are also more likely to experience Food Insecurity compared to men, and lone parent households (most often led by women) have the highest rates Food Insecurity in Canada. Further, Indigenous women living off-reserve in Canada experience over four times the rate of severe Food Insecurity compared to non‐Indigenous women.

Today, and everyday, we need to be celebrating and uplifting the women who are working to make these realities a thing of the past.

Today, our Community Advocacy Manager, Rebecca, attended presentations and roundtable discussions at the Mental Health Advocacy Symposium, put on by the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre and Carleton University's School of Social Work. Community and Social Workers came together to discuss barriers to advocating for the rights of those living with mental health challenges and the impacts of poverty. Through knowledge sharing, listening to communities, working alongside those with lived experience, and pressuring systems and governments to adequately resource folks to be able to live with dignity, we can all work to overcome those barriers.

We do not have to be working in social services, studying in academia, or have lived experience with certain challenges to be effective advocates. To start, we only need to look to our values, then to the current state of things, and ask, "How could this look differently? How can I help? Who's with me?"

Today, members of our team visited two other community organizations offering food and innovative programming to folks in Ottawa.

✨️We toured the new location of the Centretown Community Food Centre, a space that’s bright, spacious and accessible! Many of the folks who drop into our meal programs and other services live in Centretown, so now we can share more of what to expect when referring there. Being situated within the Catherine Street Hub is an added bonus, as folks can get food and also get connected with social workers, employment services, and other support!

✨️The Rideau Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre is another great community hub! In addition to their amazing food and youth programs, individual support, and community development, they are currently working to build a new community kitchen. Our Community Chefs at PFC are sharing some of their knowledge and expertise to help make this happen.

Community services like these are working together to build a strong Ottawa. Connected communities are strong communities!

Image description: Harriet and Beth are smiling and holding a sign that says "Good Food Box Ottawa" in front of a colourful wall.

Here are some hard truths. Things we want you to know. Some reasons we need your help.

🍎 Food prices continue to go up
🍎 30% more people are accessing our grocery program compared to this time last year
🍎 We’ve had to cut our monthly grocery budget by 5%

This means we are doing more with less.

And despite increases in the cost of living over the past few years (~7% in 2022 and ~4% in 2023) our staff have not received an increase in wages in over 3 years. They show up every day with their whole hearts, their amazing skills, and breathe life and love into all we do ✨

We aren’t alone in these challenges.
This community, this city, this country is hurting. There has never been a more important time to be there for each other, Neighbour to Neighbour. So if you can, we’re asking you to commit.
To this community. Your community.

Become a monthly donor of $20+ in the month of March and Canada Helps will donate an additional $20 for every new donor who joins our team through their Make It Monthly campaign!!

Monthly donors keep us strong.

🍏We’re aiming for 31 new donors this month. Today could be you!🍏 L ! N K in BIO ↖️

Parkdale Food Centre was invited to speak at the All-Party Anti-Poverty Caucus this morning! Together with our partners at and others, we spoke to what we think needs to be considered in the 2024 Federal Budget. What are some of the things we asked for?

🍎 Sustained and adequate investments in the non-profit and charitable sector that directly serve communities
🍎 Livable incomes through adequate minimum wages, enhanced social assistance rates, and supportive employment services
🍎 Investing in a National School Food Program and other initiatives that make it easier for people to purchase the food they need
🍎 Funding and implementing income-based policies like Basic Income and the Canada Disability Benefit
🍎 Investing in deeply affordable housing, homelessness prevention, and rent control
🍎 Reforms and increases to existing government benefits, like EI and CCB
🍎 Making stronger investments in communities who are disproportionately impacted by inequalities