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Toyota Drives Food Bank Efforts With $300K Donation

Just when things were looking darkest for Canada’s most-food-insecure citizens, Toyota is donating $300,000 to Food Banks Canada under its dealer- and employee-driven Million Meals program. A grand example to Canada’s other major corporations!

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The timing couldn’t have been better. Canada’s Food Banks late last fall reported they were as strap-ped for food donations and cash to buy essential foods as they’ve ever been. Many even had to cut back the contents of their  aid ‘baskets’ by 10percent or more. We’re just entering the depths of winter, and things weren’t looking any better – until Toyota Canada extended a big helping hand…

A Million Meals

“We believe no one should have to wonder where their next meal will come from,” says Leslie Miller, Vice President, Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer, Toyota Canada. “The Toyota Million Meals goal is about uniting our resources, efforts and compassion to help build stronger, more food-secure communities across Canada. We’re proud to partner with national organizations like Food Banks Canada who are on the front lines every day.”

The upfront donation of $300,000 to Food Banks Canada, announced last week, is just the first such effort this year by Toyota under the program.

Toyota Canada has been making major donations to key food security programs around the country, throughout each calendar year since 2020.

A sigh of relief…

“Right now, it is a difficult time for many of our family and friends across the country with food bank usage at its highest in Canadian history, with the need for food banks nearly doubling in only five years,” says Kirstin Beardsley, Chief Executive Officer, Food Banks Canada. “Thanks to the generosity of partners like Toyota Canada, this will ensure that food banks can continue to meet the increasing demand and provide essential resources to our neighbours in need.”

But the $300,000 donation – though it sounds big, is a far cry from what it will take to keep Canada’s Food Banks ‘in business’ through the rest of this year.

Toyota’s generous gesture is more than just a financial injection. It’s also a powerful example to other major corporations of what they should be doing to help feed Canada’s neediest folks at their most vulnerable time of year.

My take

If Toyota can make such a magnanimous gesture to help feed Canada’s most vulnerable… Why aren’t the supermarket chains doing something comparable?

They’ve racked up record profits over the past several fiscal quarters, and announced grand expan-sion and store upgrade plans. But I’ve heard no-thing from the Big 5 about significant donations to the Food Banks, or food sustainability programs.

And, if they are doing something comparable to Toyota’s donation, on the QT, why aren’t they trumpeting their efforts, even if that might seem immodest of them?

Direct, visible, palpable support for Canada’s food relief and supply sustainability efforts would go much farther to win them back the support and trust they’ve lost from consumers over the past several years of uncontrolled rising food prices…

~ Maggie J.

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