Unsung Hero Award

JAGGER S. GORDON

The Covid crisis reaped havoc on our food supply. Restaurants closed. There were food shortages. And the peril of our city’s hungry spun out of control. Problem, meet solution. Years earlier, chef, artist and philanthropist Jagger S. Gordon had created the Feed It Forward Charity. Dismayed by egregious food waste he set out to rescue and repurpose food to “feed Canadians, not landfills.” Along with his thriving catering business, he launched North America’s first “pay what you can” grocery store, bakery and coffee shop. When the crisis hit, catering was an immediate casualty. Gordon quickly recalibrated and invested all his energy into Feed It Forward. His Good Samaritan enthusiasm was an urgent call to action for the socially conscious who asked what they, too, could do to help out during these desperate times. He was the first one to do this, and he inspired scores of industry volunteers to collect unused food from Toronto’s closed restaurants and hotels, and prepare meals to feed thousands of people in need. Over 30,000 meals were prepared in a kitchen set up in the closed Mississauga Banquet and Event Centre. Freezer space was donated by closed restaurants. His trucks distributed at accessible locations including Nathan Phillips Square, and volunteers delivered to the elderly, the quarantined and the needy. And in the middle of it all he became a new father. Like a four-star general, he created an army to conquer food insecurity in the city of Toronto.