McAntony's Menu - Food Security in Canada

In 2020, while international disaster response became more difficult in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, GlobalMedic wanted to take a look closer to home and see how we could help Canadians in need. The McAntony’s Menu program was developed to work alongside food banks and assist them in meeting the increased demand for food.

The McAntony’s Menu program provides support to food banks, shelters, and other community support organizations throughout Canada. GlobalMedic procures large 25kg - 50kg bags of dry pantry food items, namely kidney beans, green peas, green and red lentils, rice, and chickpeas. Volunteers repack the food into individual 500g/700g bags. These bags are then boxed up and distributed to food banks, shelters and other food assistance programs in order to support their clients.

The McAntony’s Menu program is extremely cost-efficient. By purchasing food in bulk and mobilizing our extensive volunteer base to re-package food, we are able to produce significantly more food at a lower price-point than pre-packaged options. These two factors allow us to significantly drive down the cost of this program, and supply more to food banks. This allows us to distribute 3-4 times more food at the same retail cost. In other words, for every $1 invested in the program, we are able to deliver over $4 worth of food to families who face food insecurity. GlobalMedic’s Grassroots Revolution is focused on combating this issue by harnessing our volunteer power and creative programming. GlobalMedic has been able to accomplish this by filling the gaps other established supply chains have been struggling to fill.

McAntony’s Menu is also intentionally designed to provide culturally appropriate food for individuals in need, whilst maintaining personal dignity. McAntony’s Menu offers food banks and other organizations the option of six different dried food items. By providing multiple staple options, clients accessing these services are able to retain the dignity of choice in their diets and choose which food items suit their needs best based on factors such as cultural preferences. Our McAntony’s Menu bags also do not feature the GlobalMedic name or logo. Instead, they are intentionally designed to look like any other product you might find in the grocery store.

Since the inception of this program, McAntony’s Menu has become one of GlobalMedic’s staple activities, with 16 volunteer shifts every week across our two food packing locations at the Cloverdale Mall and our warehouse in Oakville. Every week, approximately 240 volunteer spaces are filled packing our McAntony’s Menu food, averaging 660 volunteer hours in total.

Due to inflation and the rising cost of living, an increasing number of Canadians are relying on food banks and other community organizations to meet their basic needs. In 2025, more than one in ten Torontonians relied on food banks, compared to one in twenty just three years ago. Nearly 1 in 4 Canadian households, representing close to 10 million people, including 2.6 million children, were food insecure. According to Food Banks Canada, there are over 2 million monthly visits to food banks. Eighteen percent of these food-bank clients are employed, the highest proportion ever recorded. Thirty-three percent are children, representing 700,000 visits per month, which is a 233% increase from five years ago.

In seeing these statistics, GlobalMedic is dedicated to continue to build up the McAntony’s Menu program to help combat one of the fastest growing issues facing Canadians today. Since the launch of this program, GlobalMedic has delivered over 9.1 million pounds of bulk food to Canadians in need. We have delivered McAntony’s Menu Food to Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Yukon Territory.

Please consider a donation to this program to help continue making an impact in the lives of Canadians facing food insecurity.