The Stop Community Food Centre

For over 40 years, The Stop Community Food Centre has worked alongside community members in Toronto to increase access to healthy, culturally appropriate food that maintains dignity, builds health and community, and champions equity. This work spans four interconnected areas: emergency food access, urban agriculture, community building, and community advocacy. In emergency food access, we provide dignified, choice-based food through our drop-in meal programs, food bank, and Good Food Market. Alongside this, our urban agriculture work spans the Green Barn at 601 Christie St., Earlscourt Garden, and other neighbourhood sites, in partnership with local groups, where we grow, tend, and harvest food while sharing knowledge and building skills that participants can carry into their own communities. We also operate The Stop’s Farmers’ Market at Wychwood Barns, a year-round market that provides access to fresh, locally grown food and goods, while supporting local producers and strengthening local food systems and economies. In addition, our community building work offers programs such as Healthy Beginnings for new and expectant parents, community kitchens, emotional wellness activities, and spaces that foster connection and peer support. Our advocacy work includes peer-led community action, tax clinics, and supports that help people navigate systems and access income, housing assistance, and other essential resources. Across all areas of our work, The Stop is shaped with and by the people who access and support it. Together, we strengthen and adapt what we do in response to community experience, ensuring it remains responsive and rooted in lasting change. The Stop is an Imagine Canada accredited charity.