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Sara Elsdon
Aayushi Trivedi packaging food at GlobalMedic
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Sara Elsdon
Izzah Syed packing food at GlobalMedic
Throughout the pandemic, 1 in 8 Ontario residents has experienced food insecurity. With the cost of living increasing dramatically, this statistic is likely to grow.
Unemployment in the province is hovering around 6.2%. While this is down from the 2020 peak, it continues to stress families in need.
Poverty forces families to make difficult decisions when it comes to grocery shopping, cutting down on variety and fresh foods. This is where GlobalMedic steps in to help.
GlobalMedic has recently opened a new location in Oakville to package and distribute staple foods from our domestic food program, McAntony's Menu.
Sara Elsdon
Prita Nagulan
Since the launch of McAntony's Menu in February 2020, GlobalMedic has delivered nearly 1.9 million pounds of food to food banks and other organizations throughout Canada.
Through this program, our volunteers repackage large 50 lb bags of nutritious staple foods into 500g bags ready for use, then delivered to local agencies serving vulnerable clients.
The staple foods include rice, pearled barley, green lentils, red lentils, chickpeas and green peas.
Purchasing in bulk and utilizing volunteers allows GlobalMedic to provide 500g bags of food to families for a third to a quarter of the retail price.
In addition to addressing food insecurity in the Greater Toronto Area, our operations in Oakville are also creating employment opportunities by hiring local youth to oversee packaging and distribution.
Five recipients of the Canada Summer Jobs Grant are working at this site to produce staple food items distributed through local food banks and other organizations serving vulnerable members of our community.
GlobalMedic is a registered Canadian charity that runs capacity-building programs and provides disaster relief services to large-scale catastrophes worldwide.
GlobalMedic has responded to 241 disasters in 80 countries, including earthquakes in Ecuador, Haiti, Japan and Nepal; tsunamis in Japan and Sri Lanka; typhoons in the Philippines and Taiwan; hurricanes in Grenada and Guatemala; cyclones in India, Myanmar, Vanuatu and Mozambique; floods in Bangladesh, Mexico and Pakistan; drought and famine in Kenya and Mauritania; epidemics in Liberia and Sierra Leone; and complex emergencies in Gaza, Iraq, Mali, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen.
