Daily Bread Food Bank founder Sister Marie Tremblay was given a boost by singer Bruce Springsteen.
The death of the founder of the Daily Bread Food Bank is being remembered as it was two years ago this week that she passed.
The organization’s founder, Sister Marie Tremblay, was a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph Order. She died peacefully on October 29, 2021.
Sister Tremblay had a long passion for social justice issues. In 1983, she worked with community members to found the Daily Bread Food Bank to alleviate hunger for the city’s most vulnerable and advocate for systemic change.
She set out to collect and distribute food to small, community-based food banks across Toronto.
Food Bank volunteers carrying on Sister Tremblay’s legacy.
Daily Bread then was then a small operation until Sister Marie helped organize a big push from rock and roll icon Bruce Springsteen, who made a $34,000 donation at a Toronto concert in 1985, sparking a wave of other donations and volunteerism.
“Bruce put us on the map,” she later said. Sister Marie used the funds to purchase Daily Bread’s first refrigerated truck.
Now almost 30-years later, Daily Bread remains committed to fulfilling Sister Marie’s legacy by meeting the emergency food needs of tens of thousands of individuals experiencing hunger, while at the same time, advocating for long-term solutions to end the root cause of hunger and poverty.
“Daily Bread continues to work towards a hunger-free city where the right to food is realized for every person in need,” according to its website.
Almost 17 million pounds of food were distributed to 189 food programs in Toronto last year. Food bank visits have almost doubled since COVID, going from 60,000 people per month to 110,000 plus daily.