Carmela with Intelex Training Specialist Steph DiRaddo
On Monday, April 25th, I was one of a few Intelexians who spent their afternoon at Daily Bread Food Bank to help sort through food donations from the organization's Spring Drive. It was my first time volunteering at the Food Bank. For years I’ve donated food items and dropped them off at the local fire hall but I had never known or considered what happened to my bags full of canned tuna, KD, and pasta, or exactly how they reached people in need.
What happens is that the Daily Bread relies on people in the community to volunteer their time to sort the food and prepare it for distribution to various agencies across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). On the day that we volunteered, after a 10-minute lesson from our team leader, our group of 15 volunteers dove right in and worked very well together sorting the food into their respective categories, disposing of expired or soon-to-be-expired items, and setting aside dented cans for a higher level of quality assurance. In the end we successfully sorted every last food and household item they brought to us.
Volunteering has always been something I've been interested in. In fact, I would easily use vacation time or personal days to take time off work for volunteering. However, as an employee at Intelex, I don't have to use either. Time off for volunteering is just one of the many benefits that Intelex offers its employees. Check out the complete list of Intelex’s comprehensive employee benefits program here.
As the hub of the food bank community in Toronto, Daily Bread supports approximately 170 member agencies in running different kinds of food relief programs. Its agencies run neighbourhood food banks where people go to access food hampers, as well as meal programs where people can access prepared meals such as soups or casseroles.
Daily Bread Food Bank is the largest provider of emergency food relief in the GTA. Its member agencies see a monthly average of 73,000 client visits and serve the majority of the clients accessing food bank hampers in the city and many of the clients accessing prepared meals.
