North York Harvest Food Bank sees major damage after recent flooding in Toronto

A Toronto food bank is making an urgent appeal for help after flooding earlier in the week caused major property damage and food loss.

Staff at the North York Harvest Food, located on Industry Street near Black Creek and Trethewey drives, said only some items could be saved when the area flooded on Tuesday when nearly 100 millimetres of rain fell.

“The whole back of our warehouse, the loading dock area, was flooded and also water was coming in through the warehouse,” Sahar Ghafouri, a director with the organization, told 680 NewsRadio Toronto on Thursday.

She said the rain caused a power outage, which affected the food bank’s two walk-in coolers and a walk-in freezer.

Ghafouri said as a result of the power loss and the escalating temperatures in the refrigerators, staff had to throw out most of the high-value products such as meat, dairy, produce and frozen items.

A delivery truck was also damaged during the storm as staff were rushing to transfer some of the food to a cold storage facility that offered up some space.

Compounding the situation is residents who lost food at their own homes, which will increase the immediate need.

“It’s a pretty bad situation,” she said.

Ghafouri said the value of the discarded food plus damages to property is around $50,000. She said they’re trying to raise money to fix what was lost.

“We are at the highest usage levels that we’ve ever had … if you asked me on Monday how we are, I’d say we’re at a crisis even before the rain,” she said.

“It’s never a good time, but we’ve never seen as many people come to the food bank as we have … and a lot of it has to do with affordability. Wages just aren’t keeping up with the cost of living.”

Click here for more information on how to help out.