Food Banks Warden - Scarborough, Ontario

Peter B.

Had heard about food banks, so came here to see the concept.

So you enter, they register new people or add points to cards and then you go and pick up stuff in a room. Everything in this room is shelf stable carbohydrate loaded food.

Then you go to a desk, and a new recruit who doesn't speak English randomly starts discarding stuff from your basket without any explanation. When asked what's the rule for picking up stuff, he doesn't seem to know. Felt like he was just acting on his own mental model of maintaining scarcity for the undeserving common people. The people behind me in the queue were trying to correct him. Then they update your points card balance.

Then you go to the produce section, and the guy starts stuffing your bag with potatoes, rutabaga, romaine lettuce with red fungus, etc disregarding whether you want it or not. At the end, you have to reveal your religion in order to get any meat because they assume everyone who goes there is a muslim and doesn't want the meat if it is Halal. The guy gave loads of meat to the person ahead in the queue whom he seemed to know, and didn't offer me any meat. Again, he also didn't seem to respond to english.

During the whole time I spent inside, the staff was speaking with each other loudly like in a south asian fish market video in a foreign language. Then on asking a fellow person in the queue, he said they were speaking Bangladeshi language. Every single person, except one elderly lady in the staff was from Bangladesh. Might not be true at all times, but it sure was the case when I went.

If one has to summarise the whole experience, it was "Bangladeshi Muslim refugee camp"

Kayesh K.

Great Atmosphere. Helping people. Canada Refugees can Get their food and Other Things.. U Must Register before go. They also gave spot registration. But not Sure.

D. M.

No long lines but steady visitors here. The bus stops right in front of the building which is very convenient. Unfortunately, this location is not accessible if you have a wheelchair or walker. There is a large step to enter the building that needs a ramp so all can attend, a portable one should be provided. Staff are nice so they might be able to provide you with food if you cannot access the building but no one man's the door here so you will need to holler or ask someone to let the supervisor know.
Food that they provide is a mixture of fresh produce, protein, canned goods and pasta or rice. I did not see any expired products handed out here. Unfortunately no fresh fruit handed out like they supply at other food banks which was surprising. They have a feed scarborough booth in the parking lot that seems to sell rescued produce. Pricing seemed high.
Open Tues to Sat 12 noon to 6:30 pm.

Jasmine L.

I was somewhat excited to check this food bank out since I had seen on the news it was one of the newer additions...they seem understaffed and couldve be better organized.
Short line that lasted way too long. No seperate lines for online order pickup and was somehow, both hectic and slow moving inside. I've been to 4 food banks in Scarborough over the past year and this one is the closest but also the worst. Volunteers are kind but doesn't seem to be a great work environment for anyone, it just seems disorganized here. (To give them the benefit of doubt, I've only been to this location once so maybe it was just a bad day)

V

I love that there are food banks available to help the poor and needy, so I'm grateful. I was very shocked and disappointed to see that the first time(never going back) I went there the other day, almost 9/10 food items were expired. Not last month expired, last year expired, even the milk, eggs and meat. Please don't serve expired foods to the people. I heard on the news last month that someone was hospitalized for eating something expired from the food bank.

oliza A.

Very few item they provide but friendly stuff

Din I.

It’s very bad. Go there just lost time and money

Rocky

I got food Poison from here.wacth for bad foods.