Oakville charity needs volunteers to help package products for local food banks

Global Medic ‘s Oakville site has launched a new program to help tackle the dramatic increase in food insecurity and get nutritious food out to those in need and now they need your help.

Inflation and the rising cost of living have led to a dramatic increase in food insecurity and the registered charity is looking for people to volunteer at its Oakville site and help them feed vulnerable families in the area.

“Almost double the number of people that were accessing food banks before the pandemic are accessing them now,” said Rahul Singh, Executive Director at Global Medic. “Because everything is costing more, we’ve launched a program called McAntony’s Menu in which we pack food aid.”

With McAntony’s Menu, Singh explained they take 100-pound bags of rice, or 50-pound bags of green peas, lentils, seven different products and repackage them into smaller bags using volunteers.

“The reason we do this, is we’re able to drive price down and get more food out to those very food banks to serve vulnerable families in need,” he said.

To carry out the program, Singh said they have opened up a site in Oakville and pack every single day there.

“I’m so proud to launch our new Food Security Response Hub,” said Singh, standing in the facility. “And the difference in this hub, which is different than the other places that we pack food, is in the very front of the building we’ve opened our very first vertical farm.”

Done in conjunction with a local company called Six Farms, they can produce microgreens for local food banks in the Greater Toronto Area.

“Microgreens are very nutritious, a very good way of getting your nutritional value for the day,” said Jon Davey, Domestic Programs Manager at Global Medic.

Inflation and the rising cost of living has led to a dramatic increase in food insecurity. Help us make sure vulnerable families have access to nutritious food by volunteering at our Oakville site. https://t.co/kkisUj3tgH pic.twitter.com/bgB61sl92S

— GlobalMedic (@globalmedicdmgf) June 9, 2023

A volunteer driven agency, volunteers play a key role with their time and expertise to ensure that every dollar donated provides as much aid as possible.

“Every Wednesday when we harvest, we package those products and then we push them out to food banks so that vulnerable families that can’t access quality food are now getting healthy, fresh produce,” said Singh. “So, it’s pretty exciting for us.

“We’re hoping to scale up this farm and we’re hoping to help folks right here in Halton area get more access to food.”

To register as a volunteer, those interested can sign up here.