Photo: Co-organizers of the Avengers and staff from the Meeting Place were on hand at the Annual General Meeting.
The Sir James Woods Award for Community Development is presented annually by West Neighbourhood House to recognize individuals and groups in the community that demonstrate an extraordinary commitment to serving their community.
The Avengers Group is the recipient of the award for 2026. The group started in 2013 on the website Meetup to hand out sandwiches to the unhoused on the street in downtown Toronto. Soon after, they moved into a ‘Sunday Café’ model serving meals at a local charity.
Their involvement with West Neighbourhood House began in 2016. They were looking to relocate and learned that the Meeting Place drop-in was renovating their kitchen. This allowed them to cook a greater variety of meals for participants.
Since then, first on an every-other Saturday basis, but now on a weekly basis, volunteers work as a team in collaboration with staff of The Meeting Place to decide on the menu options. Ingredients are purchased, the food is prepared and served to our participants.
The group has since grown to over 1200 volunteers, although there are using about 8-9 on a typical day. Each time, the volunteer group is made up of more experienced volunteers, with those less experienced, an approach that encourages mentorship and support those who are beginning their volunteer journey.
The volunteers also come from all walks of life, backgrounds, levels of education, and reflect the diversity of our city. In addition to learning practical cooking skills, volunteers also get the opportunity to learn about the issues impacting the participants at the Meeting Place.
The group also recently went through the process of becoming a registered non-profit named The Avengers Kitchen but will continue to collaborate with the Meeting Place.
We greatly appreciate the support The Avengers have given to our participants at the Meeting Place, and we look forward to continuing to build on our partnership.
For more information on the award and past recipients, click here.