Good Food Boxes

Imagine how good it would feel if your city regularly distributed 4,000 boxes filled with healthy, local fruits and vegetables to 200 churches, houses, day care centers, and schools in low income communities?  Toronto Public Health did some imagining with an initial 40 food boxes in the early 1990s and Good Food Boxes were the tasty result.

Many people who are eligible for it don’t make use of food assistance in North America, whether out of a sense of independence, difficulty working the system, or simple dislike of the products typically offered through subsidized food programs. Good Food Boxes are not free, but they are a low cost way to get fresh produce from local farms to people who have trouble getting to markets with inexpensive, healthy produce. Even though the boxes are delivered primarily to low income neighborhoods, Good Food Boxes are not a needs-based program. Because anyone can order them, there is no stigma of “being poor” attached to the program.

Deliveries are only made to drop-sites of 10 or more (the drop-site organizer gets a free box). People need to build little communities to get their Good Food Boxes, and new community connections have proved to be an unexpected benefit of the program. People can chose from small, large, organic, fruit only, or a popular “Wellness Box” geared to seniors and students with pre-cut, measured portions. All Good Food Boxes are filled and delivered by volunteers who use top grade produce bought in bulk from local farmers and distributors. Funds for staffing and advertising comes from local donors.

While food banks continue to have an important role to play in Toronto, programs such as Good Food Boxes give many low income people more choice and control over healthy options in their diets.

You can download a manual for creating a Good Food Box program here.

Related posts:

1. Tasty Maps of Food Assets
2. Toronto: Recipes for a Healthy Food Revolution
3. The Emergency Food System and Food Hubs

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