What "People of Action" Look Like – My Rotary Moment
On Sunday, October 4, I stood in a school parking lot, waiting for cars to return. Then they started pulling in, one after another, trunks and back seats stuffed with grocery bags. That's the moment I keep thinking about.
It was pickup day for the Etobicoke Rotary Club's annual Thanksgiving Food Drive. A few days earlier, we went through the neighbourhood, hanging bags on front door knobs, each with a note asking for shelf-stable food like canned fish, peanut butter, pasta, and cereal. Close to thirty of us from our club and the Toronto West and Toronto Tibetan Rotary clubs went back out on Saturday to collect them. Our neighbours gave over $6,000 in food and cheques. I left that afternoon energized and satisfied with what we had done together, and I don't think I was the only one…….
While we waited, I watched one of our members make his way across the parking lot towards us. He has physical limitations and had come by Wheel-Trans to be there. I was so happy to see him. He could have stayed home, and no one would have thought anything of it. He came anyway, because this is his community and he wanted to be part of it.
This work matters to me because of where I've been. For over twenty years, I worked as a public health nurse in Toronto, visiting families with young children in low-resource communities and in shelters housing women, children and youth. I saw how often they struggled to keep enough food in the house. Back then, I could call the food bank or a social worker and usually get a family some help. That's much harder now because so many more people need it. Food banks are stretched thin, and after rent, many families have little left for food.
The latest Who's Hungry report shows how serious it has become. Toronto food banks had over 4.1 million visits in a year, and more than one in ten people in this city now use them. Almost half of food bank users have someone in their household who works, and after paying for housing, they're left with about $8.83 a day for everything else (Daily Bread Food Bank & North York Harvest Food Bank, 2025). A year after Toronto declared food insecurity an emergency, food banks were still saying hunger hadn't let up (The Canadian Press, 2025).
Iosif came up with this event a number of years ago, and hearing him explain why made me appreciate it more. The club has funds, so we could simply buy the food and give it to the charities. That was never his point. He wanted Rotarians out meeting people, and he knew a bag left on a doorknob would make that family stop and think about neighbours who don't have enough to eat. Students from local schools also take part, learning to run a food drive from start to finish and seeing their community a little differently.
Each club directs its own share of the food. In ours, the Community Committee, led by Gill, decides where it goes. They know this community's needs, and each year they choose which local organizations will receive our donations. This year Gill, Anne and Sam delivered the food to three nearby food banks: Haven on the Queensway Community Centre Food Bank, St. James Food Basket on Burnhamthorpe, and Christ Church St. James Food Pantry on Parklawn.
A food drive won't solve hunger in Toronto. But it helps families get through the week and shows the rest of us we can do something.
I've volunteered with non-profits most of my life, but Rotary is different. Being a Rotarian puts me among a committed, caring group of people guided by one idea: Service Above Self. Two of Rotary's worldwide areas of focus are fighting disease and saving mothers and children, which is what I've given my career to. It means something to belong to a club that cares about families on this street and families half a world away.
The day after the drive, Matteo emailed the club to thank everyone and said we exemplify Rotary's "People of Action." He was right. People of different ages and different abilities gave up a Sunday afternoon to fight hunger in their own neighbourhood, and seeing that warms my heart so, so much. It gives me hope.
References:
Daily Bread Food Bank & North York Harvest Food Bank. (2025). Who's hungry 2025. https://www.dailybread.ca/research-and-advocacy/research/whos-hungry-report/
The Canadian Press. (2025, December 17). Food insecurity persists in Ontario cities that declared emergencies over past year. CJME. https://www.cjme.com/2025/12/17/food-insecurity-persists-in-ontario-cities-that-declared-emergencies-over-past-year/
