During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic an additional 500,000+ Torontonians are at risk of going hungry, with 25% of the population currently experiencing food insecurity. Upon witnessing the closure of many community-dining and meal programmes, the two companies involved in the soon to open 1 Hotel Toronto; SH Hotels and Resorts and Mohari Hospitality, with backing from the Scheinberg Relief Fund, knew they had to act fast. With great privilege these two organizations were able to come together and approach the City of Toronto with the offer to open 1 Hotel Toronto’s kitchen to lend a hand to those in need by crafting and packaging meals for donations to help fill the widening gap of supply and demand for food support across Toronto.
The ‘1 Hotel Toronto Relief Kitchen’ launched in December 2020 with the dual purpose of serving the local community and providing opportunity for displaced hotel employees. In partnership with Second Harvest, the relief kitchen has provided 3,500 meals per week to eight frontline agencies, collectively supporting thousands of Torontonians in need. Additionally, hotel staff are now providing over 500 hours per week of volunteer community support to North York Harvest Food Bank and Daily Bread Food Bank.
Since mid December 2020, the 1 Hotel Toronto Relief Kitchen has prepared and delivered over 45,000 meals to 9 agencies across Toronto, donated over 6,000 hours of staff time to the two largest local food banks and brought 36 members of the team back to work to serve their community.