By Gwen O’Reilly, Executive Director, Northwestern Ontario Women’s Centre & Good Food Box Administrator
In 2005, the then Thunder Bay Food Action Network was at the forefront of community food security work. Members brought a speaker to town to talk about something called the Good Food Box. The model was simple: buy fresh produce in bulk and use the leverage of volunteers, grant money or partnerships with local farmers, wholesalers or retailers to distribute fresh, affordable fruits and vegetables to people struggling with food access and poor nutrition.
A small group of FAN members, including myself from Northwestern Ontario Women’s Centre, decided to go for it. Many NOWC clientele were food insecure, especially sole support mothers – it seemed like a good fit. We hired a summer student, and the Thunder Bay Good Food Box was born. Shoana Beattie spent the summer researching other GFB programs. She coordinated the very first order in September of 2005 at the old RFDA building (now OKC) on McKenzie Street, where we distributed 58 boxes. A subsequent Trillium grant stabilized our operation. Nowadays, we pack more than 600 boxes each month, through the hard work of over 70 volunteers (and a lot of local pizza and coffee!). We celebrate our dedicated volunteer family and community partners by hosting our Annual General Eating dinner. All of this work is coordinated by one, almost-full-time food wizard, Sherry Scott, with a lot of support from NOWC staff and admin. We maintain a community board of volunteers, host site coordinators and partners to direct the program.
To avoid transportation barriers, TBGFB has a network of distribution points (Host Sites) where people can purchase and pick up their food boxes. We now distribute boxes to some 40 sites throughout the District. We are in schools, First Nations, libraries, agencies, health centres and most senior’s buildings. The TBGFB has become a huge, interconnected web of community volunteers, agencies, housing, supporting operational partners, farmers, producers, retailers, artisans and local businesses. It has also become an economic engine of local purchasing, keeping money circulating in NWO. When we started the program, we were told it would be impossible to integrate locally grown food into our distribution. Not! We have always sold locally grown and made food and products at a premium to help support the program, but we also lever our bulk purchasing power to buy some local food for our regular box. In 2024, the GFB purchased $40,500 of local food and goods.
There are no eligibility requirements for the GFB – you pay $22 in advance for your box and receive it at your local host site 2 weeks later. In 20 years, we have raised the price only once, and there is no mark up on the regular box. Through fundraising, we are able to offer subsidies on the cost to volunteers and our lowest income customers. Aside from nutrition, the focus of the GFB has become empowerment, education and inclusion – we do regular workshops and events with our amazing volunteers. Many agencies use our program as an engagement tool, offering subsidized boxes or community kitchen programs to the people they serve, or bring their clients to packing day.
As we approach our 100,000th box, we know that for a large percentage of our customers, the GFB is still the only fresh food in their house all month. Many cannot afford the GFB without a subsidy, let alone buy veg at the store. We also know that our customers eat more fresh food, cook at home more often, and meet new friends at pack day. Plus, their kids eat more vegetables!
Find us and our fabulous Leeks in the Boat videos at GoodFoodBoxTB.org.
