Vipin Saini, Executive Director, Seva Food Bank
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
What’s your favourite thing about the services that Seva Food Bank provides?
Knowing that there’s instant impact. Individuals come to us hungry, and they’re leaving with food to nourish themselves and their families. There are any number of reasons that bring an individual to a food bank, whether it’s employment, underemployment, immigration status, or mental health support. We’ve seen a big upswing in domestic violence survivors and intimate partner violence. If we can help with those add-on services — those other things beyond food — the individual can come back as a volunteer — and that’s the hope. If we can get to the root cause of hunger, then that’s a true win.
How important is the culturally appropriate element of the food you provide?
It’s incredibly important that we provide meals and food that are culturally informed. There’s no point in giving someone heavily processed high fructose corn syrup products when they’ve got diabetes. We use a grocery store model. Individuals go around our space and take what they need, depending on the size of their families, what makes sense for them, and even dietary restrictions, religious, health or otherwise. Food is a very personal thing. If individuals can make those decisions, there’s also a bit of a confidence boost that goes along with ‘I’m making the decision here. I’m selecting what I’m going to cook for my family.’
How many people do you serve?
In 2024, we served 42,000 over the year. In 2023, we served 40,000.
We provide food for 25 days a month. We shouldn’t be the primary food source but we’re seeing that more and more.
What’s one thing you love doing every day at your job?
I think having interactions with staff and volunteers. I started off as a volunteer with the food bank for ten or eleven years. Joined the board of directors. I always wanted to make sure that I was working shifts, that I was stocking shelves, that I was having those conversations with clients and with volunteers and staff. Those interactions helped me through some difficult times. In everyone’s life there are ups and downs, and I had my share. I was often coming to Seva as a volunteer to forget some of that and ground myself a little bit, and it provided me with that support when I needed it most. When I would leave a shift after volunteering, I felt as though I could breathe a little deeper and I could kinda drop my shoulders a bit. It provided me with so much when I needed it.
What was the experience like as a volunteer?
Our Wolfdale location is five minutes away from where I grew up. We serve the same postal code. It was a no-brainer to donate my time there. It gave me an understanding of how lucky and privileged I was in my life. I saw what food insecurity did to young kids. I saw it growing up in the schools I attended and while living in the area that we serve. I always had three square meals. I had snacks. I was able to focus in school. I had friends that couldn’t, that we split lunches with.
Where did your interest in Seva Food Bank begin?
The connection was really the Sikh community. Being a practicing Sikh myself, I had heard of the organization and that a group of young Sikh individuals, professionals who wanted to do more than their day-to-day nine-to-five, and so it connected on so many different levels. When I met these individuals, they were very passionate, very successful at what they do, and they were all taking time aside to make sure that they were providing support to the community at large. Although the organization was started by a group of young Sikhs, by no means will you see paraphernalia or any sort of pushing of any messages. We’re here to serve, and that’s that, regardless of where you’re from. The idea of helping just one specific group just doesn’t sit well.
Are there examples of bottom up people first approach, as opposed to top down? Is this something your organization is doing and if so, how are they doing it?
Absolutely, our non-food bank programs are largely informed by our clients. You know, we have conversations with our clients, and what we hear often is “I need help with employment,” so we started a skills training culinary program to give individuals skills to get them a step ahead.
We want to make sure you’re on the pathway to success, and if we can open you up to more, let’s do that. So many of our clients don’t have family doctors, probably over 90%. So, we work with a family health team to come in and do workshops. Another need that arose from our clients was dental care, so we worked with colleges to get them in. For diabetes screenings, we’re working on an eye care screening, this all comes from our clients and what their needs are. We’re very much informed by our clients. For us to sit and try and make decisions for what we think they may need would largely be detrimental.
Do the needs of your clients change over time?
They’ve become far more complicated and complex over the past few years. We’ve seen this massive increase in intimate partner violence and survivors of domestic violence. We need to make sure we’re providing supports to them. Drop-in sessions. Counselling sessions. We’ve seen a massive increase in international students and the supports that they need. Most of them are around getting an understanding of their rights as employees or as renters. Because a large number of them are being taken advantage of.
Can you provide a snapshot of the clients that use the food bank?
We’ve seen a large number of seniors start to come in, and this is not a demographic that we saw much of early on. Seniors are very much on a fixed income, pensions and whatever else. They are finding it more and more difficult to get by with everything else increasing and their pension very much staying the same. That’s one, sort of, new case that we’re seeing. We’re seeing more and more employed individuals — those with jobs that just can’t seem to make it. They may be involved in the gig economy (as a driver) — that type of thing. Again, it’s just not enough for them to get by, so we’re seeing that. I’d mentioned the international students. That’s another sort of demographic that we’ve seen a large increase in.
Do you have a sense of what it means for people when they come in?
As soon as an appointment has been filled and an individual has come in, there is a feedback loop. There’s an email sent out to the individual asking how their services were, and we hear absolute glowing reviews. “We’re so thankful. You have no idea how much this means to me and my family. I’ve been stressing for the past week and a half — how am I going to support my family and make those decisions around rent or heat or food — you were able to alleviate that stress.”We hear that a lot. There’s a lot of blessings that are sent electronically, so we’re very thankful for that.
Is there anything that might surprise people to hear about Seva?
I think what often surprises people is when I say that we’re not just a food bank. Whether it’s the culinary classes, the skills training, or a hot meal program that we started for close to 100 seniors every day. We’re very closely connected to Peel Regional Police in supporting intimate partner violence survivors— providing basics, whether it’s gift cards, clothing needs — any sort of needs that are immediate when a survivor has been placed in either a motel or temporary home. We did a guide-a-thon for international students, where we brought together legal, mental health, and addiction support resources and had close to 300 students just to talk and get information because they don’t have that guidance. They don’t have parents here. They’re 17, 18, 19 years old, and they have no one. These other things that we do tend to surprise individuals, and that’s why I say we’re more than a food bank.
Are the US trade war and looming tariffs impacting your future thinking?
Yes, we purchase produce week after week, and we sometimes have to purchase milk. Those prices — we know that they’re going to increase. A lot of the produce does come from the US. We have to be careful what we purchase, and we make those changes accordingly. Every individual walks out of the food bank with apples, oranges, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, green peppers, and cauliflower. It’s very important that they’re given those products. Shelf-stable stuff that’s full of preservatives and sodium, you know, that’s a part of it, but if we can give fresh we really like to, so we have to purchase that. We just have to be very careful about how much and when for certain products. We’re going to see more of this. If we need to cut back on how much is purchased, that’s obviously something that we have to do. We have a budget, and we have to stick to it.
