GIVING BACK CANADA team taking bags of food items to a thankful family. Photos courtesy of Giving Back Canada.
Etobicoke’s Taylor Lyons and a team of volunteers in these challenging times are working to help those who are hungry or needy in the community – one family at a time.
Taylor, 28, is the founder of a non-profit organization called Giving Back Canada, which works to promote unity and helping each other in our communities.
SOME OF THE CLOTHING items donated by Giving Back Canada gets snapped up by grateful men and women.
“We do this by providing food and basic necessities to families struggling with food insecurity in Etobicoke and the Greater Toronto Area,” she says.
They have a list of more than 50 families to whom they provide groceries and other necessities monthly for free. She said the needs are much higher though.
“We help feed more than 20 families alone in the South Etobicoke area,” Taylor explains. “We get their grocery list, buy the food and take it to them every month.”
GIVING BACK CANADA was founded by Taylor Lyons and provides food items for more than 50 families monthly, including 21 in Etobicoke.
She says the families, with children, are mostly newcomers, needy and require help with food, for which prices are rising and is one of the most expensive necessities.
Taylor said most of their funds for the programs are raised from supporters on social media.
The initiative began in 2017, when they raised $800 by Christmas Eve and were able to provide food and clothing for the homeless in downtown Toronto.
The next year, they raised another $7,000 online to continue to feed the needy and homeless.
A HAPPY MOM and child are glad to receive the help.
“The families we help include those struggling with loss of income, no transportation, and isolation due to higher susceptibility to COVID-19,” Taylor notes.
In May 2020, Giving Back Canada raised $16,000 in just 10 days mostly again on social media to provide free groceries for those in dire need.
With these funds, they decided to partner with The Good Neighbour Project, a voluntary food delivery service that provided them with emergency case families.
Last December the charity hosted its first ever in-person fundraising event and raised $9,000 to help others. They also organized an online 12-days of giving campaign, which raised $17,000.
She said the charity is looking at extending its efforts to help others across Canada, and then internationally.
You can get in touch with Giving Back Canada by e-mail at givingbackcanada@gmail.com, on its website at www.givingbackcanada.net or phone 647-309-5889.