real food forward: our way of giving back
Real Food Forward is how we spread the love into the wider community.
Since 2008, we’ve been teaming up with incredible organizations to provide free meals, donate books that build food smarts, and turn surplus into support — all in the name of our ongoing mission to enable & inspire a lifetime of healthy eating.
meals delivered to people who need them
We cook up fresh, ready-to-eat meals and provide them for free to people who need them most. Whether it’s a warm lunch or a satisfying snack, these meals bring not just nourishment, but care, dignity, and a little extra support to at-risk members of our community.
Updated January 2026
reducing food waste through community partnerships
When you’re cooking up real food for thousands of kids every day, a little extra is bound to happen — a few onions here, a half case of bell peppers there. But at RFRK, we believe good food should never go to waste. That’s why we’ve teamed up with amazing community partners like Parkdale Community Food Bank, Good Shepherd, and Second Harvest to turn our surplus into something meaningful. Together, we’ve redirected thousands of kilos of perfectly good food to people who need it — filling plates instead of landfills, and spreading real food love across the GTHA.
Since we started tracking donations in 2017, we have donated over $224,768.95 worth of food in the receiptable category!
our book donation program sparks curiosity and builds real-world food smarts
We make learning about food fun — from where it comes from to how it fuels our bodies.
One of our favourite ways to get kids excited about food literacy? Storytime!
Every year, we donate or gift food-focused children’s books that take young readers on a journey from farm to table, serving up bite-sized lessons on nutrition, sustainability, and the joy of cultural food celebrations.