About Us

A study was conducted by the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph to determine the greatest unmet needs in the City of Kingston. In an effort to eliminate hunger in the area and exercise their ministry to attend to the sick and the poor they began the Food Bank in 1984. The first food collection was received on June 17, 1984. Four local Catholic Churches participated. The food was counted and sorted at St. Joseph Regional House in Amherstview and then forwarded to the St. Vincent de Paul Society for their emergency food distribution program.

As the need grew, it became necessary to expand the food collection program by networking with other Churches and agencies to heighten awareness of the food bank program. A full time employee was hired to address this goal. The Partners in Mission Food Bank opened in the Anglican Church – the Church of the Redeemer on November 6, 1985, on the feast day of Jerome Le Royer de la Dauversiere, the founder of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph. A small depot was maintained at St. Joseph Regional House to meet the food needs in the Amherstview area. Although area churches remain a steady source of food, the need became great enough that other more substantial grocery sources were developed. For example in 1986, in an effort to expand the amount of food donations the first food blitz covering the greater Kingston area took place.

Outgrowing the space at the Church of the Redeemer, the food bank moved in April of 1989 to 412 Bagot Street at a cost of $1,100.00 per month. Considerable repair work was required to bring the building up to usable standards. The repair work was completed, donated refrigerators and freezers were installed and the Partners in Mission Food Bank reopened at its new location.

By this time there were 5 employees. Numerous volunteers were needed to sort, stock shelves and prepare daily food orders for pickup. To this day the volunteers continue to be an integral and vital component of food bank operations.

One of the volunteers who had been providing administrative duties was hired, initially as a part time service user support worker and was soon offered a full time position to accommodate the increased work load and a rapidly growing service user base. As the need grew, new computers were purchased and a customized data base program was developed and put into place.

In 1995, the Provincial Government initiated major cut backs which had a far reaching negative impact on both food distribution and donations. Many donors were now themselves looking for assistance. Due to the immediate rise for food bank support, it became necessary for agencies across the province to apply service user eligibility criteria. The resulting changes were difficult to implement and required intense communication between the food bank and the public, particularly service users and other social service organizations.