The Sharing Place Food Centre

The Sharing Place Food Centre The Sharing Place Food Centre aims to create a healthy and connected community through access to nutritious food.

Our six programs Support Today with nutritious food access and Transform Tomorrow with long-term initiatives for a food-secure future. The Sharing Place Food Centre has a diverse set of programs that connect our community to food. We strive to create programs that provide equitable access to nutritious food and educational moments that create opportunity for our members. https://sharingplaceorilli

a.org/programs/

FOOD RECOVERY - We partner with local grocery stores and food service providers to recover surplus food that would otherwise go to waste. Through our responsible collection and storage practices, we ensure this rescued food is distributed not only to our members but also to other local food banks and community agencies. MEALS 4 CHANGE - An innovative initiative dedicated to creating healthy, ready-to-eat meals from the food we recover. By utilizing the abundant supply of rescued food, along with the dedication of our incredible volunteers, we prepare and freeze over 2,000 nutritious meals each week in our on-site commercial kitchen—at a fraction of the cost of store-bought options. These are distributed to our members through our food bank and to vulnerable individuals in the community via local agency partners. SCHOOL FUEL - An initiative that safely delivers a wide range of healthy food items directly to 25 local schools on a bi-weekly basis. Designed to be deeply discounted, The Sharing Place offsets the costs to help maximize limited school budgets. FOOD BANK - Provides a one-week supply of food, once per month. We prioritize offering fresh, healthy food, with more than 50% of each hamper consisting of fresh items, supported by our Food Recovery program and generous seasonal donations from local growers and farmers. VOLUNTEERING - Join our amazing volunteer team! Applications are online at sharingplaceorillia.org/volunteer.

Here’s the math, for a single person living in Orillia.A person on Ontario Works receives $733 a month. A person on ODSP...
06/26/2026

Here’s the math, for a single person living in Orillia.

A person on Ontario Works receives $733 a month. A person on ODSP receives $1,408. Even after adding the new federal grocery benefit, the average one-bedroom rent here (based on CMHC’s October 2025 survey) runs about $1,475. That leaves Ontario Works roughly $700 short of rent alone, before a single dollar goes toward food, transportation, clothing, or bills. ODSP comes much closer, landing within about $15 of covering rent, which still leaves nothing for everything else.

The Sharing Place food bank can help with six days of groceries, once a month. How the other twenty-four get covered is different for everyone.

🥞 This May, all 5 Oro Medonte Fire and Emergency Services stations hosted a community pancake breakfast during Emergency...
06/26/2026

🥞 This May, all 5 Oro Medonte Fire and Emergency Services stations hosted a community pancake breakfast during Emergency Preparedness Week, and you all showed up big! 🚒❤️

Together, OMFES and Oro residents raised an incredible $8,765 for The Sharing Place Food Centre! 🙌

Food insecurity is real in our community, and our firefighters know it. 💚 Thank you to every firefighter and every neighbour who came out to learn about emergency preparedness and support such a great cause. 🙏

🍎 As schools wind down this week, we’re looking back on Year 6 of School Fuel and how far this program has come.This sch...
06/19/2026

🍎 As schools wind down this week, we’re looking back on Year 6 of School Fuel and how far this program has come.

This school year we delivered over 250,000 servings (2 items per serving!) to 30 schools in Orillia and area. With 1 in 3 children facing food insecurity, having healthy food at school, no strings attached, matters more than ever. 💚

We were also fortunate to receive federal funding through United Way to purchase a new refrigerated truck for deliveries 🚚, add storage racking, and outfit schools with fridges, freezers, and food prep equipment, 🔪🥒 so they can do even more for their students.

A huge shoutout 📣 to Uptergrove Public School for the heartwarming thank you card they presented to our delivery team, Wayne and Jim, who made sure to pass the love along to the volunteers who pick and pack orders every Monday morning. 🙌

The school year may be ending, but the need doesn’t take a break, and neither will we. The research is clear: nutritious food fuels focus 🧠, energy ⚡, and growth 🌱, everything a young person needs to learn and thrive. We’re not slowing down anytime soon. 💪

We are grateful to Kelsey‘s Original Roadhouse Orillia for their generous donation today through their Community Pit Sto...
06/17/2026

We are grateful to Kelsey‘s Original Roadhouse Orillia for their generous donation today through their Community Pit Stop initiative.

This program invites guests to support a local organization, simply by sitting at the designated booth, with a portion of each bill donated throughout the partnership.

Thank you to the Kelsey‘s team for choosing The Sharing Place as their first partner, and for finding such a thoughtful way to give back locally. 💚

Last week members of our staff and Board of Directors spent time with the Food Bank of Waterloo Region and the Cambridge...
06/17/2026

Last week members of our staff and Board of Directors spent time with the Food Bank of Waterloo Region and the Cambridge Food Bank, learning from two different and equally important approaches to community food support. 🤝

The Food Bank of Waterloo Region operates as a regional food hub, coordinating supply, systems, and partnerships across the area. 📦 🔄 Cambridge Food Bank shared the perspective of a food pantry, where direct service and day-to-day community connection shape every decision. 🏠

Thank you to both teams for opening your doors, walking us through how things really work, and sharing the thinking behind the choices you make. These conversations deep and understanding and strengthen the work we do together. 💚

06/01/2026

Some people volunteer for a few hours. Some for a few months. And then there are people like Cathy: After nearly 25 years of faithful service, Cathy officially retired from volunteering with The Sharing Place this past Friday.

How do you thank someone for 25 years of showing up? For thousands of hours given freely. For countless tasks completed without fanfare. For the steady presence, the caring heart, and the quiet commitment that helped shape this place into what it is today.

The truth is, you can’t fit that kind of gratitude into a plaque, a speech, or even a farewell gathering. But we wanted to try: this small celebration was our way of saying thank you. Thank you for every hour, every act of kindness, every challenge you helped us overcome, and every life you touched along the way.

Cathy, your fingerprints are all over The Sharing Place. In the shelves you’ve stocked, the people you’ve welcomed, the problems you’ve solved, and the community you’ve helped build.

From all of us at The Sharing Place: thank you for almost 25 extraordinary years. It has been a privilege to have you as part of our family.

Enjoy this next chapter. You’ve more than earned it. ❤️

05/28/2026

Big cheers for our School Fuel Month colouring contest winners! 🥇🥈🥉
Their creativity is helping support access to healthy food for students across our community.

Parents/guardians of teens entering grade 9 or 10 this fall, we would love to welcome your young person to SPARK Change ...
05/26/2026

Parents/guardians of teens entering grade 9 or 10 this fall, we would love to welcome your young person to SPARK Change this summer at The Sharing Place Food Centre.

This two week program offers students a chance to learn about food access in our community, build confidence through hands-on activities, and contribute in a meaningful way. Participants can also earn up to 30 volunteer hours toward their high school requirement, based on attendance.

Teens can apply to take part in one of the following sessions (each session offers the same experience):

July 6 to July 17
July 20 to July 31
August 10 to August 21

There is no cost to participate and spaces are limited.

Interested youth are encouraged to apply online using link in bio or by visiting the QR code.

We look forward to spending a session learning together and supporting local youth as they get involved in their community.

05/26/2026

After almost 25 years of loving, organizing, fixing, feeding, protecting, and fiercely caring for The Sharing Place 💚, our beloved Cathy is officially retiring.

To know Cathy is to have a Cathy story 🫶 Whether she made you laugh, helped you quietly, or corrected your shelving technique with military precision 😂, she has left a mark on all of us, so if you work alongside her or were part of her sorting table team and want to wish her a farewell, join us as we celebrate an absolute Sharing Place legend ✨

📍 Warehouse
📅 Thursday, May 28
⏰ 12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Come share a memory, a smile, or simply a moment with someone who gave so much of herself to everyone around her!

05/26/2026

There is so much to celebrate in this moment. 💛✨

This $20,000 gift from Orillia Home Hardware, which anchored our School Fuel Month matching campaign, reflects what community looks like in action. Staff, volunteers, customers, and neighbours coming together because they believe in making sure local kids have access to the food they need. 🍌🥯🍊🏡

Thank you to everyone who gave. Community support helped us more than double the impact of the original match, and that is something to be proud of. 🙌

Right now, 1 in 3 kids in our region are living in households where food access is not always certain. That can look like skipping meals, stretching what is on hand, or going without fresh fruit, vegetables, dairy, or meat because the budget just does not allow for it.

These realities do not stay at home. They show up in classrooms every day. Support like this helps ensure students can count on consistent, nutritious food during the school day, and families can feel some relief knowing that support is there. 🍎

We are so grateful to the Home Hardware team, and for every community member who gave, for standing with us in this work. 💚🤝

Address

95 Dufferin Street
Orillia, ON
L3V5S9

Opening Hours

Monday 10:30am - 2:30pm
Tuesday 4:30pm - 7:30pm
Wednesday 10:30am - 2:30pm
Friday 10:30am - 2:30pm

Telephone

+17053274273

Website

,

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Sharing Place Food Centre posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to The Sharing Place Food Centre:

Shortcuts

Share

Category