When you think of food donations, you might picture bland oatmeal, dry pasta and cans of beans. But take a scroll through The People’s Pantry’s Instagram (@peoplespantryto) and you’ll get a more mouth-watering picture: sugar-dusted lemon squares, crumbly oatmeal cookies, and festive eggnog cakes.
Since its founding at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, The People’s Pantry has supported between 10 and 30 food-insecure families across the GTA and Southern Ontario on a weekly to monthly basis, delivering cooked meals and groceries. “We’re a staple in people’s everyday lives,” says co-founder Jade Da Costa. They emphasize that The People’s Pantry tries to meet not only families’ basic needs, but also their specific ones, like halal food, baby formula, or vegan desserts.
“People can’t afford basic nutrition,” Da Costa says, “let alone get the foods that are culturally important to them, that make them feel good, that have family significance.”
But grassroots groups aren’t enough to patch up the GTA’s broken food system. To make sure everyone can eat well, it needs a major overhaul.
“There are people we’ve talked to who eat for the first half of the month, and then get a bag of potatoes and eat one a day for the second half,” says Ron Anicich. He’s the cochair of the ODSP Action Coalition, which advocates for changes to the Ontario Disability Support Program. He gets a maximum of $1,368 each month from ODSP — but it’s not enough to cover his rent and groceries.
“We all skip meals all the time,” he adds.
According to a 2024 report, half of people who visit food banks rely on ODSP or Ontario Works as their primary source of income. But long lines, limited time windows, and registration requirements make food banks tricky to access.
“Many people with medical conditions have very restricted diets,” Anicich shares. “The food that we need to keep us healthy is simply not available at food banks.”
That’s where grassroots groups like The People’s Pantry can help.
“Food justice isn’t about getting the leftovers of society,” says Da Costa. “You should have the choice to eat whatever food that you want and that you need, because it’s a human right.”
This article appeared in the 2025 Summer issue.
