At the Guelph Food Bank, it’s not just about food, despite the name.

After many years of hard work setting up weekend garage sales, seasonal auctions and eventually ‘pop-up’ events by GFB staff and volunteers, the natural progression was to open a permanent store location on site to help create a more efficient way to distribute the non-food donations and have it open year-round. This idea was born out of the need to re-open the clothing exchange that was run for many years but put on hold due to Covid. Like many organizations before us, opening a thrift store to support social programs was just the right initiative for us to pursue. With help from a generous Feed Ontario grant, we were able to repurpose a space on site with a new furnace, store furniture and racking, an easy-to-use point-of-sale system to create a wonderful inviting space for all to shop.
A BIG thank you to the many volunteer groups and individuals who put in many hours to help us turn this idea into reality.