“The demand for services has changed. There’s an increase of seniors. We also have youth.”
Community Development worker Barbara Garcia started up a homeless drop-in meal program at 40 Teesdale, which offers a sit-down lunch every Wednesday, a bagged lunch program on Thursdays (with a dinner to go every second week) and a lunch on Mondays in the winter. Garcia secured funding from the City of Toronto, which still funds most of the Teesdale food security programs. The Monday ‘Out of the Cold’ meal is funded by the United Way. Staff Barbara and Michael explain there is lots of data collection and stats to keep for a program like this. “Tuesday is catch-up day with your paper work, but you never really catch up.”
“The demand for services has changed. There’s an increase of seniors. We also have youth.”
The future of Warden Woods’ food security programs at Teesdale is uncertain. Due to a change in how the City of Toronto allocates funds, Warden Woods will have to submit a new proposal to the City at the end of 2014. They will compete with other agencies in a bid to continue to work in the community.