TORONTO RESTAURANT WORKERS RELIEF FUND
what they do:
We are a registered not-for-profit incorporated business. Our aim is to provide ongoing grocery assistance and access to therapy for restaurant workers in Toronto in a manner that maintains dignity, supports local farmers and POC owned businesses and connects folks to a nurturing community.
Our organization was born out of necessity in March, 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced a total of 480,000 Ontario restaurant workers out of their jobs. Founded by Arianne Persaud and Stefhan Iwaskow, we are now a volunteer team of three former restaurant workers dedicated to ensuring that our peers are taken care of during this tenuous time, and through an indefinite future.
We started as a GoFundMe campaign and have since grown into a reliable and ongoing source of support for current and former restaurant workers located in the GTA.
Our work is sustained by the wider restaurant community, businesses such as Burdock Brewery have supported us through proceeds from sales and most notably the Grapes For Humanity charity has made us a beneficiary of their recent fine wine auction. Please get in touch if you are a business that would like to support us.
Since March 2020 we have sent out over $147,000 in gift cards to over 300 restaurant workers in the GTA.
The project:
The GFH gift supported funds used towards grocery gift cards for applicants. Gift cards in denominations of $225, which works out to three weeks groceries at $75 per week. They sent out e-gift cards from either Green Circle Food Hub -- a business they've worked with and grown alongside since inception -- and FoodShare Toronto. Through these strategic partnerships, they ensured that donor contributions go straight into the local food economy and support local farmers in addition to restaurant workers. The model provided relief for up to 12 weeks.