Toronto’s building industry ‘passes the baton’ to help keep busy food bank afloat

Developers, builders, suppliers and agencies from across the Greater Toronto Area have been “passing the baton” to help fund the Yonge Street Mission (YSM) food bank as visits spiked by 200 per cent amid the COVID-19 crisis.

“Before the virus hit, our usual food bank average visits per week was 230 visits per week to serve 600 family members, said Angie Peters, the president and CEO of YSM on a May 8 Zoom call. “Last week we were at 697 visits supporting 1797 family members, and we are on track to go up again this week.”

Toronto Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, who represents Ward 13 where YSM is located, said what has now become known as the #YSMRelay began with a note from Peter who “told us very clearly her critical food program was going to run out of food, and they would not be able to sustain this program.”

The #YSMRelay raised more than $175K in the first two days of its launch and has now far exceeded of its total goal, raising $346,500 for YSM as of today.

Toronto-area developer Capital Developments picked up the baton first, laying down $30K to meet one week’s shortfall. The company then passed the baton to Woodbourne Capital Management, it made its way to Ellis Don, and now that baton is moving beyond the real estate industry and the list of participating donors is growing longer as it adds other community partners to the relay.

As of May 11, the list of donors to #YSMRelay includes:

• Capital Developments
• Woodbourne Capital Management
• St. Thomas Developments
• Metropia
• Westdale Properties
• Reserve Properties
• EllisDon
• Baker Real Estate
• OneClose
• Westmount Guarantee
• Diamond Kilmer Developments
• CentreCourt Developments
• Clark Construction Management
• Graywood Developments
• Phantom Developments
• Donald K. Jackson Family Foundation
• Sobeys
• PLATFORM Insurance
• Green for Life
• Minto Communities

Visit ysm.ca to find out how you can help and donate.