Ask Mary Davis* what tops her holiday gift list this year and she'll tell you, without hesitation, that a box full of fresh fruits and vegetables will do her just fine. Lucky for Davis, that's just what she and her two daughters were surprised with last year - and in all likelihood will receive again this year - thanks to the generosity of donors to Stonegate Community Health Centre's Good Food Box Holiday Drive.
"All my life I wanted to get a fruit and veggie basket, and when I got it I was so surprised and really happy. It was even better than getting an iPod," Davis said with a chuckle. "It was a really rich and beautiful basket full of sweet potatoes, carrots, apples and bananas, lettuce, and other things. There are three of us at home and we used the food for over a month."
The Davis family was just one of more than 200 families in the Parklawn-area - where 28 per cent of families and 38 per cent of children are living in poverty - to benefit from Stonegate's inaugural Good Food Box Holiday Drive last year.
The drive provided baskets chock full of fresh, local, seasonal produce to community members who frequent the local food bank at St. James' Humber Bay Anglican Church and to Stonegate clients deemed "food insecure" by the centre's clinical and program staff.
This year Stonegate aims to match its accomplishments of last year and raise enough money to purchase more than 200 baskets, plus be left with funds to provide additional baskets throughout the year, said Julia Graham, Stonegate's community health worker.
"Last year was super. What was so fabulous last year was that we really wanted to promote this campaign as community based, and that's what it ended up being. People in the community were really keen on donating and wanted to help out their neighbours in need," she said, noting that Etobicoke School of the Arts students alone raised upwards of $1,500 towards the drive.
"Last year we tripled our goal, and the remaining funds of $3,000 we were able to put towards buying people with food insecurity issues boxes throughout the year."
Through FoodShare Toronto's Good Food Box program - a non-profit fresh fruit and vegetable distribution program of which Stonegate became a drop stop in January 2010 - Stonegate is able to spend just $18 to buy a family in need a large size basket (about three grocery bags full) brimming with fresh fruits and vegetables as a gift for the holidays.
But to do so, they need a little help. A $50 donation provides Good Food Boxes to three families in need; $100 provides boxes to six families in need; and a $250 donation provides for 15 families.
For Davis and her daughters, the baskets are a much-appreciated godsend. "We struggle, but I cook so we are managing somehow. But if this year, if we were to get another basket, I would be double happy," she said. "I don't need any Christmas gifts - nothing. I just need a big basket of vegetables."
Anyone wishing to donate to Stonegate's Good Food Box Holiday Drive is asked to contact Julia Graham at julia.graham@stonegatechc.org or 416-231-7070 ext. 229 to get started, or go to www.stonegatechc.org to give on-line. Charitable tax receipts are available for every donation.