Mayor Ford to attend opening of bakery for city's poor

TORONTO, Sept. 26, 2012 /CNW/ - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is scheduled to attend the opening of a new church-run bakery that provides job training and food for some of the city's most marginalized people.

The opening of the bakery, called Take This Bread, will be held at St James Cathedral's Parish House, 65 Church Street, Toronto, on Friday Sept. 28 from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m.

"To have people making bread is life-giving, and it means that people down here have food security," says John Stephenson Jr., manager of Take This Bread. "They know they're going to get bread at the end of the day."

The bakery is located inside All Saints Anglican Church-Community Centre at the corner of Dundas and Sherbourne streets. Each week, a handful of residents from the nearby Dan Harrison Community Complex (Toronto Housing) bake loaves of bread and sell them to their fellow tenants for $1.25 each. They also sell bread to local restaurants and communion wafers to churches.

If the participants complete the 11-month bakery program, they will receive a food handler's certificate, allowing them to work in restaurants. Mr. Stephenson is hoping to transition at least one baker into a job each year.

The bakery received start-up funds from All Saints Church-Community Centre, local churches and the Anglican Diocese of Toronto, which provided a grant of $5,000. The bakery plans to be financially self sufficient by the end of next year.

SOURCE: Anglican Diocese of Toronto

Mr. John Stephenson Jr.
Take This Bread
Phone: [phone] x27
Email: [email protected]