Toronto charity providing food, clothing facing ‘imminent possibility’ of closure

A non-profit organization in Toronto providing food, clothing and other essential items to those in need is issuing a plea of its own.

“With this incredible increase in demands on our resources, we’re struggling to keep up,” said Aretha Khaloo, director of operations at Haven on the Queensway.

In an email, Khaloo and Haven’s executive director Roger Berg explained, “we’re confronted with the reality of growing operating costs and a significant shortfall in our financial donations, which is putting the Haven in the very real situation of having to close in the very near future. We urgently seek your support to continue making a lasting difference to those in need in our community.”

“Without immediate financial support Haven on the Queensway is facing the imminent possibility of having to cease our operations,” continued the email.

In an online campaign, Haven is seeking to raise 100-thousand dollars over 30 days.

“We need to be able to remain open. We don’t want to have to limit our programs during this time,” said Khaloo.

In fact, she pointed out, the need for help from Haven is greater than ever before.

“We serve around 6,000 individuals a week across all of our programs. That’s 51 per cent more than this time last year. Just with our clothing closet, we’ve seen a request for clothing, a 300 per cent increase month over month. The month of October, we’ve had over 150 requests to get clothing,” she said.

With the colder weather, one regular client told Global News, “they really helped me quite a bit … they give me diapers, clothes, boots, coats.”

In the last few months, demand for the food bank specifically has skyrocketed.

“The increase of the number of intake has tripled. We used to do like 400 people. Now we do 1500 people,” said Innocent Karuhanga, food bank coordinator. “Food banks is Wednesdays and Thursdays. So on Tuesday, we have all the appointment lists ready for everybody that’s called in … we get all volunteers from everywhere they can come and help us package.”

While the food bank is most popular, Haven offers other programs that are also experiencing a surge in demand.

“We have a Seniors Program. We do deliveries of food, hygiene kits, art kits, we do friendly phone calls to our seniors. Then on the other spectrum, we have our First Care program for new parents with children under the age of two. So we hand out diapers, formula as much as we have, we give out. And then we have a program called Hope with Wheels and this one’s pretty special. We go out on the streets two or three times a week and feed our friends living on the streets. We try to provide them with some warm clothing, sleeping bags, as well as chilli, soup, sandwiches and hygiene kits,” explained Kaloo.

Muna Abebe is a mother of two who came to Canada from Ethiopia in 2016 and said she has depended on Haven to feed and clothe her family.

“The kids, they grow so fast. So every time you have to buy. So Haven’s Closet honestly saved me,” she said.

Abebe is a full time student on a scholarship and said she plans to one day pay back the kindness to the charity that helped her.

“Whatever I’ve been taking I want those days to come so I can give back.”