Salvation Army deepens food partnerships, redirecting funds to broader programs

August 27, 2026 · 0 Comments

The Salvation Army’s Northridge Community Church has strengthened partnerships with local food banks in order to ensure their own funding can further support essential programs coming out of their doors.

Angela Covert, Manager of Community Services for Salvation Army Northridge, says the decision to wind-down their in-house food bank services came through consultation with the clients using these services, as well as with partners the York Region Food Network and Aurora Food Pantry, to assess demand and offerings.

“I had to do quite a bit of assessment on what we were offering for food,” says Covert. “We had a weekly food bank on Thursday mornings where we were seeing on average 18 to 20 families and they were able to come in at least once a month, sometimes it was stretched into six weeks depending on the demand. In the time that I have been doing this over the last two years I have really been able to sit down with the clients and get a better sense of the overall picture. I was estimating about 60 per cent of my time was roughly taken up with providing this once-a-week food bank and, as I got to know the needs more, I was also more aware of the community resources out there.”

Covert says she found the majority of families visiting the Salvation Army for these food services were also visiting food banks and pantries in Aurora, Newmarket, East Gwillimbury, and other communities which Northridge serves.

It was a matter of working with these organizations “to see how we could better help people moving forward so that they get to the point where maybe they’re not relying on food banks, although we all understand the reality that food is expensive for all of us.”

By supporting these outside food resources, such as offering their space as a distribution point for the York Region Food Network’s Affordable Fresh Food Market, Northridge has invested money, time and energy into programs that help clients move the needle further towards food and income security, such as their Pathway of Hope program, a one-on-one mentorship program helping clients make concrete changes in their lives.

“We can sit down with someone who is eager and wanting to make changes in their lives, to look at their goals, look at the resources, to assist them with those goals,” says Covert, adding it’s usually six-to-eight-month relationship with clients in this program.

The Empowered Moms group is another area that is going to benefit from these redirected resources.

Based on a program in Calgary, AB, the Empowered Moms group provides a wide-range of resources for women raising families on their own, including parenting, budgeting, self-care, and confidence.

Pathway of Hope, she says, and helps get people back on their feet, no matter their circumstances.

One trend the team is seeing, she says, is a rise in individuals who are struggling due to online gambling addictions, which brings in Northridge’s Mental Health services.

Additional trends include a rise in seniors who need services, whether they are struggling financially or with social isolation, which can be crippling in its own way.

Children and youth will also benefit from the shift as more resources are now available for summer camp and mentorship programs.

This summer, Northridge saw 58 youth participate in their adventure camp program, with many of the spaces sponsored. A camp enrollment is valued at $400 per child, says Covert, but they can offer subsidies where registration can be as low as $50. Their Brave event, a one-afternoon session for girls between the ages of 12 and 16 that helps participants “understand their self-worth and develop self-confidence, providing them with the tools to reduce their risk of human trafficking” will be strengthened as well.

With these changes, however, Northridge has not lost sight of the fellowship that food can provide.

“We stopped doing our food bank, but we still have our community garden and just recently we started a community breakfast [with the York Region Food Network] on Friday mornings, and we’re now going to combine those two on a Friday morning twice a month – offering the Affordable Fresh Food Market and Coffee Time Breakfast mornings on the first and third Friday of each month,” says Covert.

“September is when we’re starting that combination, and that is really exciting to me because not only will we be doing it twice a month, but it’s going to bring in two different groups of people who will shop, eat together, and just develop that community.

“The upside of partnering with the York Region Food Network is, number one, this is their specialty. They bring the food, they have the Market, we have our volunteers, we have the space. I’m also then able, because we’re not putting some of our budget money into the food bank, to assist people who want to purchase some of their fresh vegetables. I can kind of offset those costs and it’s a win-win-win-win-win.”

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter