Lori Nikkel
CEO, Second Harvest
In the season of plenty, countless people are still going without. Here’s how one charity is fighting hunger in Canada.
Many families across Toronto are gearing up for the holidays: stringing lights, decorating trees, and planning festive meals. At the same time, there are others facing a very different reality. These families are worried about how to put food on the table tonight, let alone host a holiday feast. When hunger takes hold, even something as simple as a bright red ornament can look like an apple. That’s what hunger looks like in a season of plenty.
According to the City of Toronto, food insecurity affects 24.9 per cent of all households. For many families, the holiday season isn’t about abundance, but about survival.
Access to food isn’t enough — what matters most is access to nutritious food. Fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy, and protein are often the hardest to find for people living in vulnerable circumstances. Without these essentials, health suffers and so does dignity. Ending hunger isn’t just about filling plates, it’s about ensuring every person has the nourishment they need to thrive.
Introducing Second Harvest
That’s where Second Harvest comes in. We are Canada’s largest food rescue organization, working to recover good healthy surplus food from across the supply chain and redirect it to non-profits that feed people in need. Food rescue is simple but powerful: instead of letting good food go to waste, we make sure it gets to food banks, school meal programs, community pantries, shelters, and countless other organizations that serve people every day. These groups access rescued food from Second Harvest for free and without barriers.
Food rescue doesn’t just help people — it strengthens the non-profits on the frontlines of support.
“If food wasn’t available through Second Harvest, we’d have to purchase food to feed the community. With Second Harvest’s help, we’re able to save thousands of dollars that can go to programming and a focus on our housing strategy,” a non-profit shared.
That’s the ripple effect: rescued food frees up budgets for wrap-around services like housing, counselling, and job support. These are critical lifelines for people in crisis.
But the charitable sector is buckling under the weight of demand. Second Harvest recently surveyed 1,497 non-profits in our network across Canada. Nearly 9 in 10 reported rising demand for food over the past year. These numbers tell a story of a system stretched beyond its limits. Families, seniors, and individuals are exhausted, and so are the organizations trying to keep up. Many community organizations operate beyond capacity, and nearly one in three now keeps a waitlist of people in need of support.
“There have been times when we’ve had to turn individuals or families away due to a shortage of food or limited resources of cultural foods. These moments are some of the most difficult we face as a community service organization,” one non-profit from Toronto told us.
“We serve a lot of people who spend their entire ODSP/OW on rent, so they rely on outside sources for all or most of their food. This is especially hard for people who are infirm or disabled to the degree that they cannot physically go to a food bank,” we heard from another.
And here’s the contradiction: nearly half the food in Canada is wasted every year while millions go hungry. In fact, the total value of all avoidable food waste in Canada every year is more than $58 billion. Food waste doesn’t cause hunger, but it exposes a broken system.
Make a difference this season
Second Harvest works every day to fill these gaps, rescuing good food and redistributing it through an incredible network of non-profits in Toronto and across the country. Last year, we rescued and redistributed 95 million pounds of food across Canada and 31.1 million pounds right here in Toronto. Food rescue from Second Harvest reached 6.8 million people across Canada in 2025. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished, but we know there’s more to be done.
This season, you can make a difference. During Giving Tuesday, all donations will be generously matched by The Sprott Foundation. That means every dollar donated will go twice as far, providing enough good food for 10 meals for someone in need.
Donate today at secondharvest.ca/donate
