The Ontario secondary school curriculum demands completion of three criteria for a student to earn a diploma:

1. Complete a required number of Academic credits
   
2. Demonstrate an adequate capacity for English language communication
   
3. Provide at least 10 hours of service to one’s community per year of schooling.
   

The first two requirements seem obvious as graduation criteria, but the third may be surprising to those who have studied outside of Canada. It reflects a value-system that insists on Community Involvement as a foundational aspect of any healthy life, and imparts this value to young people in the strongest terms possible.

Among the local organizations dedicated to serving the most vulnerable people in downtown Toronto, the Fort York Food Bank (FYFB) has stood out for its willingness to welcome young volunteers and integrate them into its operations. The FYFB is a multiservice agency dedicated to connecting individuals with their broader community. Braemar students have earned Community Service hours at the FYFB in a number of ways, notably by cooking food and preparing food hampers for distribution, building and maintaining their community garden, and helping to run their annual Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser. And none of this would be possible without the kindness and dedication of Julie LeJeune.

Julie is the Executive Director at the Fort York Food Bank. She is an experienced Senior Leader in the charity sector with more than 20 years of community-based development work. This experience has afforded her a deep understanding of poverty issues in Canada and globally, especially as they relate to health and nutrition. Her diverse roles and responsibilities include fundraising, developing and operationalizing strategy, and strong project management skills including: critical path, risk mitigation strategies and project budgets.

Having just wrapped up another massively successful fundraising event, Julie gives us a birds’ eye view of her experience as a community and event organizer, sharing some of the ideas, goals, challenges, and hopes that are involved in the pursuit of communal resilience.

You can find more information about the Fort York Food Bank and Julie LeJeune’s community-based efforts below:

https://fyfb.com/

https://www.wishandgive.ca/

https://cnoy.org/home

If you haven’t listened to our previous Podcast click here