Ontario Food Terminal:

165 The Queensway
Toronto, Ontario M8Y 1H8
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No animals allowed on premises

Parking information:

Parking for the event is FREE! The entrance for the Ontario Food Terminal parking lot is located on The Queensway, east of Parklawn Road.

Parternships with:

About Fresh Fest for FoodShare:

This inaugural public event held at the Ontario Food Terminal aims to raise funds for FoodShare, raise awareness of the importance of the Ontario Food Terminal in fresh fruit and vegetable distribution and promote the health benefits of eating fresh fruits and vegetables.

FoodShare is a non-profit community food organization whose partnership with Toronto school boards and Toronto Public Health ensures approx. 141,000 students each day enjoy healthy meals. Some of these children might not enjoy this opportunity otherwise. Fresh fruits and vegetables are sourced and delivered directly to schools to fulfill the needs of breakfast and snack programs throughout the Toronto area.

They also provide food education to schools through curriculum connections from Junior Kindergarten through Grade 12 to cultivate food literacy. The Good Food Box program they operate, delivers 50,000 boxes of fresh produce at affordable prices to 7,000 families every year.

Facts about the Ontario Food Terminal

• the Ontario Food Terminal is owned and operated by the Ontario Food Terminal Board
• it was opened in 1954 and is 40 acres in size
• it is the only food terminal in Canada, and is the third largest in North America
• the Terminal has 22 warehouse tenants, 50 office tenants, 400 Farmers’ Market tenants and over 5,000 registered wholesale buyers making use of the facility
• those buyers range from Windsor to the west, Fort Albany to the north, Fort Erie to the south and the Ottawa to the east
• fruits, vegetables and horticultural products also travel beyond Ontario’s borders as there are buyers who provide produce to Quebec, the Atlantic provinces and the U.S. as well
• over 975,000 tons of produce was brought into the terminal which on average represents 5.3 million pounds of produce per day

• when compared to other food terminals around the world it is the only one with a wholesale Farmers’ Market on 10 acres on the same site as the traditional warehouse facilities
• there is a central cold storage of over 100,000 square feet where state of the art cooling allows for storage on site for both selling groups
• the terminal has been the source for ‘buy local’ since 1954
• the ethnic diversity of the area is well represented, as fruits and vegetables arrive from all over the world
• the increasing demand for “ethnic produce” is met by either the local growers or by the importation of those vegetables
• the Ontario Food Terminal is a unique and important part of the infrastructure of Ontario, if not Canada