2025 Feed Ontario Conference
It’s time to roll up your sleeves and dig in at the 2025 Feed Ontario Conference – Seeds of Change: Presented by Ontario Power Generation.
This year’s conference provides an opportunity to connect, collaborate, and cultivate alongside food bank leaders, advocates, and partners from across the province, in order to grow solutions together.
Keep an eye on this page for all updates related to this year's conference! Or you can click the button below to view the Registration Package for more details.
Conference Workshops
This year's conference workshops have been divided into four streams.
Note: Conference schedule subject to change
Food Banks & Local Policy: Advocacy Strategies for Municipal Change
Speaker: Laura Anonen, Don Valley Community Legal Services
Food banks have a unique opportunity to influence municipal policies and bylaws that affect their clients, shape local food systems, and impact food security. This workshop will focus on how food banks can work with municipal governments and advocate for their clients to support poverty reduction. Our facilitator will be sharing experiences and insights from the renovictions bylaw win in Toronto.
Feeding our Futures: Engaging and Supporting Young Ontarians
Speaker: Food4Kids
Children and youth are deeply impacted by food insecurity. This workshop explores how food banks can extend support for young Ontarians by working with existing child nutrition support organizations. Learn how Food4Kids can work alongside food banks to improve children's access to nutritious food through meaningful collaboration that strengthens community impact.
Declaring a Food Security State of Emergency: How and Why?
Speaker: Feed Ontario and Network Members
This workshop equips food bank leaders with the knowledge and tools to effectively declare a state of emergency in response to escalating food insecurity. Led by Feed Ontario and Network experts, learn how other organizations have utilized this strategy for their advocacy efforts, and how your organization can do similar.
Beyond Emergency Food: Building Alliances for Systemic Change
This workshop will explore how food banks and food security organizations can strengthen alliances to create collective impact and drive systemic change. Using the alignment between food banks, other food security organizations, and Canada’s basic income movement as a case study, participants will engage in a discussion on effective coalition-building strategies, shared advocacy efforts, and ways to influence policy change together.
Building Community-Centered Solutions to Food Insecurity
Join this workshop to learn about Feed the Need’s multi-pronged approach to food security programming, progress, and the path forward in building a more equitable food system. Whether you are engaged in food security work, advocacy, or community development, this session will offer insights and strategies for driving meaningful change.
Panel Discussion: Fundraising perspectives that span the local to national landscape
Join us for an engaging panel discussion on collaborative fundraising and opportunities. Featuring fundraising experts from the network, this workshop will offer perspectives on fundraising, donor engagement, stewardship, and how all three levels – local, provincial, and national – can work collaboratively to grow the pie together.
Rebuilding Relations with Current & Lapsed Donors
Speaker: Mike Paquet, People First Fundraising
Advancing relations with people who already have demonstrated an affinity for your organization’s work requires significantly less time and energy than winning over new supporters. Through this session, participants will be introduced to stewardship techniques and strategies that strengthen relations with current and lapsed donors.
Sustaining Hope: Building Resilient Fundraising for the Future
Speaker: Mike Paquet, People First Fundraising
In an era of rapid change and uncertainty, developing fundraising strategies that endure are essential. This workshop shifts the focus from relationship-building to the strategic resilience of your fundraising approach. Attendees will become familiar with three important rules that can ensure the long-term viability of their respective organizations if embraced.
Honouring Indigenous Knowledge: Pathways to Food Sovereignty
This transformative workshop is dedicated to recognizing the profound role of Indigenous knowledge in shaping sustainable, equitable food systems. Join us as we celebrate Indigenous contributions and learn how to transform our food systems for a more sustainable, inclusive tomorrow.
Removing Barriers to Food Access for 2SLGBTQIA+
With deeply concerning conversations on the 2SLGBTQIA+ community currently taking place south of the boarder, this workshop is intended to support the creation of safe, inclusive spaces for all community members. During this conversation, we will explore the unique barriers to food insecurity and program access that affect the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, as well as different ways that your food bank can support allyship during this challenging time and into the future.
Nervous System Reset
Speaker: Emily Branton
With over 1 million Ontarians relying on food banks last year—and nearly 40% of food banks struggling to meet demand due to resource constraints—burnout among food bank leaders has reached an all-time high.
In this session, we will explore the critical role your nervous system plays in physical and emotional burnout, as well as gain practical, science-backed tools to regulate stress and build resilience, helping you sustain both your well-being and your impact in the community.
Embracing Culturally Relevant Foods in Food Banks
In our increasingly diverse communities, food banks have a unique opportunity to honor and celebrate the culinary traditions of the populations they serve. This workshop explores practical strategies for sourcing, storing, and distributing culturally relevant foods that resonate with the heritage and dietary preferences of diverse clients.
Collaborative Working and Conflict Management
Unlock the power of teamwork in this interactive workshop focused on strengthening collaboration and mastering conflict resolution. Join us to develop practical tools that enable resilient collaboration and constructive conflict management, ultimately creating stronger, more united teams and partnerships.
Strategic Plan Operationalization
Speaker: Emily Branton, Boss & Buddha
When we publish our strategic plan, we’re energized and excited about the impact we’ll make in our community. But all too quickly, the demands of day-to-day operations take over, and we lose sight of our vision, feeling discouraged by the lack of progress. By the time the next planning cycle begins, we’re back at square one.
Learn how to bridge the gap between planning and execution by embedding your strategic plan into your organization’s daily operations using the EOS Traction model. Discover how to sustain the momentum and energy from your strategic planning process and turn it into meaningful, ongoing progress.
Navigating Resource Challenges
With food bank use at a record high, many food banks are facing i resource constraints which has led to organizations having to make difficult choices regarding service provision and support. This workshop provides a thoughtful exploration of how to navigate these challenges, ensuring that even amid resource concerns and heightened demand, the needs of the community remain at the forefront.
Effective coaching and mentoring for nonprofit leaders
Speaker: Mikhael Bornstein, Professional Fundraiser & Educator
Effective coaching and mentoring are critical to driving employee engagement and organizational performance. But as a nonprofit leader, coaching and mentoring can often seem to be a daunting and esoteric practice.
In this interactive workshop participants will learn the four practices that drive effective coaching and mentoring in the workplace. Participants will take part in exercises to develop their skills. Finally, they will learn how to identify situations when coaching and mentoring are not appropriate. By the end of the session, you will have practical skills you can take back to your workplace.
Warehouse Event Workshops
Warehouse workshops have been divided into three streams,
with a split focus between small, medium, and large-sized food banks.
Note: Warehouse Event schedule subject to change
Small: Effective volunteer scheduling
This workshop will cover how to efficiently assign warehouse roles for both regular and irregular volunteer teams. This workshop strategies to ensure smooth operations, no matter your volunteers’ availability or experience level.
Medium: Inventory Software for Small and Medium Organizations
Organizations of various sizes can streamline operations by tracking donations and managing the shopping model digitally. This workshop covers user-friendly approaches to technology and tools that make life easier for warehouse workers.
Large: Inventory Management
Learn from experts on how to use Primarius to create and manage food categories effectively while setting priorities for distribution. This workshop covers best practices for organizing inventory and streamlining allocation.
Small: Fostering Regional Sharing
Strengthen your impact by partnering with other local members of the Feed Ontario Network. This workshop covers practical strategies to maximize resources, reduce waste, and improve food distribution across communities.
Medium: Food Transformation
Explore ways to minimize waste and make the most of available food resources. This session will touch on important methods that will help to ensure more food reaches those who need it.
Large: Creating hub allocations
Hear about strategies for breaking down products and managing distribution through primary and secondary delivery points. This session will explore how to establish efficient and equitable food distribution to partner agencies.
Small: Shared Space Agreements
Learn how renting from like-minded partners or sharing space with neighbouring organizations can help expand your capacity. This session will explore key considerations to make space-sharing a successful and sustainable solution.
Medium: 3rd Party Logistics
Setting up third-party logistics and hiring an external transport partner involves careful planning and strategy. This session covers the essential steps to improve overall efficiency and service delivery.
Large: Warehouse Impact and Metrics
Warehouse and logistics teams play a key role in storytelling and impact reporting. This session focuses on how operations teams can utilize the data available to them to help showcase your organization's impact and strengthen community engagement.