Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Hops for Hunger: Toronto Mike'd #769

Episode Date: December 12, 2020

Mike chats with Troy and Chad from Great Lakes Brewery during their Hops for Hunger event in support of Daily Bread Food Band. Andrew Manson from Daily Bread Food Bank joins in as hunger jams are kicked out. This episode was recorded outside during what felt like a typhoon.

Welcome to episode 769 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Cracking open a cold one, Troy Birch. It's a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. CDN Technologies, your outsourced IT department. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. StickerU.com, create custom stickers, labels, tattoos and decals

for your home and your business. Sammy Cohn Real Estate, for a complimentary evaluation of your home, contact Sammy Cone. Sammy at SammyCone.com and Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and this week

I'm live from Great Lakes Brewery for their annual Hops for Hunger campaign in support of Daily Bread Food Bank. It's Troy Burch. Mike Boone. How's it going? Good, man. How are you?

Let's describe the scene since I didn't want to risk losing the cameras to this temperature here. Okay, so describe the climate. We're outdoors, of course. We're six feet apart. But how would you describe this weather? It is a damp, dull day uh the weather that is but it's uh it's merry and festive here at gray lakes yeah and we are so just to let people know we're recording shortly after 11 a.m uh the retail store is now open and i've already witnessed people like what was that one haul that those

people brought for the daily bread food bank how many uh that was well over 100 pounds um 100 pounds I would I would almost wager it was closer to 200 and I'm looking now somebody just brought I don't know what that is that's like 24 giant cans of uh pea soup yeah oh my goodness so so much to cover here off the top here uh but first I want to complain about something. Last week we were chatting about this and you said that we'd have a fire pit. And of course, I'm so gullible. I believed you 100%. I was all psyched to build this studio out around the fire pit. Where's the fire pit?

And you believe that. So yeah, we're going to call it your gullible pale ale. No, that was a joke. It would be a little interesting to have a fire pit in the middle of our parking lot. Well, how? Okay. Cause I've been to events at Great Lakes Brewery where there's been fire pits. Like for example, a non-pandemic Christmas party. Oh, sorry. Okay. Oh my goodness. No, no, no. That was, we did that for the Christmas market last year, which it's, it's hard to, you were here last year. We, I was here. We had, it's crazy.

I put this on, I think it was my Facebook the other day, but we had over a thousand people at this time last year walking the grounds here at the brewery with 25 different vendors selling artisanal knickknacks and stuff. Santa was here. Santa was here. And it was a big day and it's such a change and a shame. Well, I'm so glad, though, that you didn't break this tradition.

Let's talk about this specific event here. So how many years now have you been doing the Hops for Hunger in support of the Daily Bread Food Bank? This is the 12th annual Hops for Hunger campaign at Great Lakes. The first year, though, that we're doing a food drive. Oh, is that right? Okay, so now can you explain it all to me? Like, is it just bring us your non-perishable food items and your diapers and your baby food and all that,

and we'll make sure it gets to the Daily Bread food bank of one of your many Great Lakes brewery trucks? Is it as simple as that? Yeah, 100%. So maybe I'll do the backstory um again like i said 12 years of doing hops for hunger in support of daily bread and in the early days at great lakes what would happen is throughout the month of december would you would go in and purchase beer from the retail store they would weigh your purchase and then they would donate a portion

of the weight in dollars really confusing stuff right. Right. But back then, too, our retail store wasn't the community hub that it is today. And so over the years, we've progressed with our relationship. And in the last number of years, we've brewed a beer specifically for Daily Bread with a dollar of that beer going towards the Hops for Hunger campaign. And then this year, we would always go over and do food sorts but this year because of covid we couldn't do that so we said well how can we get how can we get that team aspect again um and we said let's do a food sort here on the day uh we were announcing it was the day daily bread was saying uh they had to cancel their big food drives

at their new toronto location right and uh we said we're going to go ahead with ours and get as much food as possible. Well, good on you guys because I just, coincidentally, I've been sort of immersed in this world for a couple of months because I'm on this team behind Toronto Miracle. And we just spent the last two months trying to remind Torontonians about the food insecurity epidemic in this city. Now, I think later, we're hoping somebody from Daily Bread Food Bank comes back with all the numbers and stuff. But I had access to a bunch of the stats.

And before the pandemic, one in five Torontonians were food insecure, which means they had insufficient, you know, nourishment in their diet due to financial strain, etc. And that was before the pandemic. I can't imagine what it's like now. Well, one of the shocking numbers that I got from Daily Bread was in September 2019, they service 60,000 Torontonians, which is a huge number as it is. Right. 20,000 Torontonians, which is a huge number as it is. Right.

Fast forward to September 2020, and they're doing over 120,000 individuals, families in the GTA. So that number is doubled. And at the same time, they can't do their big food drives and campaign the way they used to. So this is our little part in helping out. Well, thanks for doing this. I mean, it's kind of exciting to be here live and watching like fam, I see families kind of just showing up. Everyone's wearing masks, of course, and keeping it, we're

all outdoors and we're all socially distanced, but just dropping off food, I'm watching, and some people are bringing cash. You're also accepting cash. We're accepting cash donations, yep, and same on our website as well, too. If you go to greatlakesbeer.com and hit the shop button on our online store, if you fill your cart with fresh GLB for home delivery or curbside pickup,

there is a tip option that you can leave a tip for, or not a tip, I apologize, a donation button that you can leave a donation for Daily Bread. And at the end of our Hops for Hunger campaign, we're going to go into that app and take a look at how much we've raised and cut them a big fat check. And I was looking this morning, actually, and our customers in the 12 days since we've started Hops for Hunger have donated $2,600 through our online shop. So today, that, the sale of the beer, it's going to be a good year for us at Grey Lakes to get some dough over to Daily Bread. And now to get back to the weather really quick here. This is, I think this is now

a record for the coldest weather in which I've been recording outdoors. And I think it's due to, again, this is a beer that's now available at the Great Lakes Retail Store, but it might be the lake effect because that wind is coming in hard off the lake here. Yeah, our friends Anthony Fresnel and Adam Stiles

will probably say the same thing. Do you still do the porch beers with Adam? I haven't had, no, not in a long time. Is that the pandemic? He's too big and busy for us. Yes, the pandemic, number one. And number two, yeah, Adam's too big. Adam's become a big BFD, as we say on the podcast here.

So I'm going to actually play some music throughout this chat as we bring people on to the third mic there and we chat more about this because I do need to talk about the eggnog stout and what happens when you buy that. Because, by the way, that's delicious. It's delicious and it's magical. And it's magical.

And I will let the people who, again, who can't see us because there's no cameras on us, but you guys have a great, like, what do you call it? This is a tent. Like, what is our name for these things? Yeah, these are just our 10 by 10 tents. We have a lot of them here. And unfortunately, we can't use them for events anymore.

So we're using them today to stay covered, stay dry. Because it's rainy, too. Like, we haven't mentioned the rain yet. Well, I know it's not live, but this is rain or shine. We're covered. We have rain ponchos for people if they want them. Oh, wow. Yeah, we're making it as convenient as possible.

If the trunk's full of beer, we'll go get it. Listen, there's good-hearted, loyal drinkers of Great Lakes. I'm looking, and you guys mentioned you're a pillar of the community here, or maybe you used a different word. I like the word pillar. But, like, there's a lineup outdoors in, like, what I would call freezing cold. Here, I'll mute you, Troy, and you can talk to this guy. Okay, I actually muted myself there.

So everything's happening live here. We got a guy here. I think he's from CBC. He's got a camera. And we do have a third mic open here. Yeah, so I'll unmute you. Now, half the battle will be me pressing the right. This person's license plate is spam.

I think that's kind of cool here. So lots of things happening here. It's live to air. I did see some FOTMs arriving. So shout out to the FOTMs who have come out. One FOTM in particular dropped by and said he wants to jump on the third mic soon. So Michael Lang, if you're out there,

this is me talking to you in the past. Oh, hey, here we go. We got a new – okay, get close to that mic and tell us who you are. I love these live intros here. Is that the mic? Yeah, yeah. Get your mouth there. Oh, hello.

Who the hell are you? My name's Chad. Chad. Okay, Chad, just project into that microphone there. Chad, how long you worked at Great Lake? Two years this week, actually. Yeah. You're one of the familiar faces.

I am. Yeah. You've got a warm smile. Thank you. And do you have a title? Did Troy give you a big fat title? No. He wishes.

No. I wish he did. He wishes that he did. You know, this. Who is the media person here? The person with the nice camera? Oh, I've heard of the CBC. Yeah.

You guys got the big uh yeah you know what i saw when i was biking here is uh i guess there was like a truck convoy going by because we're very close to the uh gardner expressway here and they were like they had their camera set up on rural york the bridge and they were shooting this uh i don't know if they were it was a protest or what but there was a bunch of trucks uh going by honking horns and i was thinking i hope they stop that before i press record but uh i think it was the uh the farmers in india oh yeah okay so uh i gotta read up on that but anyway cbc had cameras on it um what was i gonna ask you okay since troy's not listening now oh what was it like being down the street from the barbecue protest

well because we do a lot of the home delivery and i'm doing that quite a bit now so i did see a lot of it when i was trying to leave and come in so it was very i don't even know how to describe it because it was it was supposed to be about local businesses but it seemed to got a bit carried away and become more about it attracted interesting did other sex like so it's like oh this guy's protesting the small business which might be a legitimate protest right but it's like oh now, this guy's protesting the small business, which might be a legitimate protest, right? But it's like, oh, now we're going to come in and do our anti-mask thing. And then we're going to come join in and maybe, I don't know. I saw there was like white nationalists were getting in. There was skinheads.

Oh, yeah. There was skinheads. Like you don't want to be in a club that has skinheads as members. I think that's what it was. I think it got, there is some, not truth, whether or not you agree or disagree with it. It's there's, it got carried away and it wasn't the right way to do it. But they're gone now because i actually came by yesterday for a pickup and uh i saw you yesterday right yeah and uh i noticed cops at the barbecue place and they were like taking away a lot of the

barricades they had set up like i noticed there's still a fence around it and it's kind of boarded up like you know you can't get in there i guess guess, now. But, yeah, I saw Peter Bullitt was quoted by Global News as, like, that this wasn't good for small business. So I guess that's, yeah, so you guys were kind of disappointed that this circus was taking place down the street. Well, I think that's kind of the irony of it, right? Because it was supposed to be about small businesses, and then it ended up, I guess, hindering us.

And then, from my understanding, Adamson was doing okay prior to this little show. Well, because they did take out and deliver, right? Yeah. So they were doing okay and they always apparently were selling out because it's a barbecue place. It's until they sell out. So they're always selling out. So it's like, I understand, again, what you're trying

to say, but then you kind of shot yourself in the foot. Right. But I think he was really looking for awareness. Like, I think he was really looking for awareness. I think he was really looking to become some kind of a figurehead in this cause. So I see Troy's being interviewed right now by CBC. Look at this guy in his Great Lakes poncho. That's

amazing. I'm going to just to warm us up because are you cold? No, I'm good. I'm not. Actually, I don't care. And people think, oh, you know, I will, if it was minus 30, I'd come out and record. It's the gear. It's honestly like the headphones will snap. There's all these problems when you get close to zero and it's blowing wind off the lake here.

But I'm just going to warm us up just a little bit. This is Bob Marley and the Whalers. And this jam is called Them Belly Full But We Hungry. And I think it's a cool jam for what you guys are doing today. So we'll listen a bit and then I'm going to ask you about the white ignago stout we're going to talk about in a moment. Na na na na, na na na na na Them belly full but we hungry A hungry mob is a hungry mob A rain of fall but it's not too tough

A yacht of yoke but you'd not know You're gonna dance to jam music Dance We're gonna dance to your music Forget your troubles and dance Forget your sorrow and dance Forget your sickness and dance I thought that car was going to run over those people. I know.

It's okay. You can talk in there. I'm going to bring this down. And we're just saying so. I honestly thought, and there's actually a CBC camera on her too. And I was like, oh, she's not going to run over that poor mother and her child there. We have to witness this. What do you think? Okay.

So right on that mic, buddy. By the way, is it me or are all Chad's like handsome guys? No, seriously. Because when I was growing up, Chad was like, Chad's were all kind of good looking guys. I don't know. I'm not saying. Okay. Just stay on that mic, buddy.

I want to hear about the white eggnog stout. Okay. So what's the deal? If you buy, and it's delicious, but if you come to great lakes or if you order um white eggnog stout what is the arrangement you have with the daily bread food bank well we actually this year we have two so before we had the white eggnog stout now we also have a belgian winter ale so both of them it's called hops for hunger and then a dollar of every can sold goes to the Daily Bread Food Bank. And we cut the check for them, I think, end of January.

And so a dollar, according to Daily Bread, can give a whole meal to a whole family for just a dollar. Wow. So every time you buy a can, you're feeding a family at least for the day. Amazing. I see the Park City Boots people here. The Park City Boots? They're great supporters of Great Lakes Beer, too. The Park City Boots people here. The Park City Boots? They're great supporters of Great Lakes Beer, too. The Park City Boots here.

I feel like we should be the traffic cops, because this guy's coming out. Oh, she's making a donation. That's lovely. The woman who almost ran over that mother and child is just handed Troy a $20 bill. Oh, look at that. How many bags of non-perishable food?

It looks like there's three. Hey, buddy, Chad, do you want to just do play by play of everything happening here and if you see anyone you think want could jump on the mic like a park city boots uh wants to jump on the mic just wave them over because i do have the third mic set up here but that was yeah a little bob marley and then i was thinking uh what's another jam there's a lot here, but I'm just going to start up another one, and then we're going to... Okay, you're... Yeah. Are you sure this isn't a typhoon?

Have we talked to Adam Stiles lately about what this condition is? You know, I'm actually going to forgive her for almost running over those people, because that's the generous person. That's a Toronto... Look at that. She just came by, dropped off a whole bunch of non-perishable food and gave troy 20 bucks that's going to the daily bread food bank that's beautiful honestly i'm i've been

immersed like i said to troy earlier i've been immersed in this for a couple of months now uh the need is so it's so uh what's the word I'm looking for? It's imperative that we all donate what we can, be it money or non-perishable food items, because this is an epidemic. We have hungry people in the city, and a bunch of big food drives have been canceled because we're in a pandemic,

and we're all, like, count our blessings, able to share with those who could use some help. Do you, okay, I guess she's busy with her kids.

I was going to get the Park City woman on but she's, she's walking by. Do you remember this jam? You're a lot younger than I am but do you know this song? I do recognize this song,

yeah. Phil Collins. Phil Collins. Yeah, another day in paradise. So I thought this might be yeah. Phil Collins. Yeah, Another Day in Paradise. So I thought this might be a good hunger song. I'm going to save the best for last because there is a great song I'm going to save for last. Now, what else is going on?

So you mentioned there's two. Yeah. So what's the deal? You got the Belgian winter ale. Yeah. Okay, so then a dollar for every uh are they cans or bottles the can so it's the same as the white eggnogs that's the first year we've done the second beer so before we used to do a winter ale in a bottle where the snow the sorry the christmas

trees and everything but this year we kind of decided i guess maybe because of the pandemic and just as you just think everything that went on this year that it'd be nice to give back even more and the eggnog again it's delicious and even more. And the eggnog, again, it's delicious. And if people are afraid of eggnog, they should still try it because it's very... Oh, yeah. It's so subtle. It's amazing.

Like my buddy Elvis, who's coming over for Festivus. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's... Man, we love, we love, we love it. It's fantastic. And the dollar for every can sold that goes to the Hops for Hunger campaign here, which is in support of Daily Bread Food Bank,

is like just complete bonus and icing on the cake, if you will. You enjoy a beer and you get to donate a dollar. What time are you guys collecting food till today? Till four. Okay. So, because we're not live anywhere. So, like, as we speak, I see the clock says, oh, man. There goes the boxes.

Okay, we are, honestly, I wish we had the camera set up. Maybe CBC is catching all that, but that's, but I'm telling you, I hope there's some kind of visual record of this typhoon that we're recording in today. Look what we're willing to do, Chad. Yeah, I know. Whatever it takes, right? Whatever it takes.

All right, so I wanted to, yeah, so it's 11 a.m to 4 p.m i won't even get this online until about one o'clock but it there'll still be time for the eager beavers to hear this and get their butts to uh to glb and you can donate more than just today so we do have the two boxes well more than two just sitting in the retail store up until christmas eve so you can come if you can't make it today, you can come anytime before Christmas. And you know what I'm seeing here now, which we haven't mentioned yet, but I feel like we buried the lead here. And you'll correct me if this is wrong, but Peter Bullitt tells me this is absolutely true.

So he outranks you. Is that true? He outranks everybody. He outranks everybody. Okay, that's how it works around here. So any customer that makes a donation of 20 pounds or more, and I witnessed somebody drop off 100 pounds of food earlier. So if you make a donation of 20 pounds or more,

you get a complimentary, that means Great Lakes will pay for this on your behalf, four pack of Great Lakes beer. And of course, he says the sincere thanks of a grateful brewery. Well, I'm going to throw in the sincere thanks of a grateful city, a grateful community, and a grateful brewery. Well, I'm going to throw in the sincere thanks of a grateful city, a grateful community, and a grateful podcaster. I'm honestly so happy you guys are doing this. Thank you.

Yeah, so you get a complimentary four-pack. We weigh it with a big scale that we weigh malt and kegs with. And if you're over 20 pounds, you get a complimentary four-pack that come with our Canuck Pale Ale, our Shinny Pants, our Great Lakes Premium Lager, and Pompous Ass. And Pompous Ass, was that named after Troy or no? No, it just used to become Troy. But yeah, it's just four of our staples and just, you know, some one-off with the Great Lakes Lager.

We don't do all the time, but everyone who likes light, fresh beer and likes the blonde, try the Great Lakes Lager Premium Lager out. But everyone who likes light, fresh beer and likes the blonde, try the Great Lakes Lager. Premium lager out. What is, and I asked this question a couple of years ago, but I need like a fresh reminder of what the new answer is here. But what is the best selling beer in the retail store? And I don't know if you have the specific metrics or analytics, but just your feeling from being around the store so often. So our top selling beer is Canuck because that's across the province. But we actually have found there's been a drop in it,

I think because it's available in pretty much every LCBO, all their grocery stores. So I'd say our top seller is usually the one-offs. Like we just did this call that Canadian Cabin, which is a maple barley wine.

Wait, what's it called? Canadian Cabin. Oh, that's a good title. So it's a, yeah, it's a maple barley wine. And then we also, we did for the American Thanksgiving, the New England version of the Canuck and Octo.

So those always sell out like crazy. So it's the one-offs and especially the ones that have a great following that we've been doing for years. Those are the ones that really, really sell. But I would say Canuck, yeah. Okay. So that's the. That's our number one.

Because I guess my assumption is that the number one beer that you guys sell in the province is the Canuck Pale Ale. But I felt like in the retail store, it might be something like Octopus wants to find. Yeah, Octopus is also, I think Octopus is creeping up to being, maybe selling more than Canuck. Who made the decision that Octopus would be year round? Was that you? No, I just missed that. I unfortunately was not there for that legendary.

And how do you decide what beers become year-round beers? Because, like, is it Burst that's now year-round? Burst is year-round, so it's supply and demand. Wait, hold on. Stop the press.

This guy's got a Quebec Nordiques jersey. Look at this. Did you see that? That's unbelievable. That's a great retro Quebec. Get that guy on the camera, CBC. Holy smokes. He's rocking the Jays cap, but he's got the Nord.

I love the old defunct jerseys. Bring me a Hartford Whalers jersey. You know what I mean? Amazing here. Okay, I'm going to crack open it. It's okay if you have Canuck Pale Ale before it turns to ice here. So I'll do it on the mic here. Cheers to you.

Let me start another Hunger song while we chat here. Nice. Yeah. You like the 80s retro? I do, I do. I've seen Duran Duran too, actually. Oh, I didn't know can't talk about that. Holy smokes.

By the way, there's no doubt in my mind why Canuck Pale Ale is the number one in this province. That's a delicious beer. And you can pick it up at LCBOs. And can you remind me of the rules for home delivery? Like just remind me what the rules are. So the home delivery is something that we launched when the pandemic started. So you have to buy, well, you can only order a minimum of $50 and it's free delivery.

And that's across the GTA, Mississauga. And then about a month ago, we broke into Hamilton and Burlington. And then Stony Creek and Ancaster followed that as long as it's within the postal code. Okay. Say all the cities again. Okay. So the GTA, including Scarborough. So yeah, but be specific only because I actually always wonder like, is Ajax GTA?

I think Ajax is the GTA. So we're not in Ajax. So it would be the West End. Is Pickering GTA? Pickering, I do believe is also part of the GTA, but again, so yeah, you're right. Yeah, so name the cities, man. Come on, Chad, these details matter. No, don't do that. Toronto, we know Toronto.

That's the six boroughs. And then Mississauga. Between the 403 and the QE. So we don't go north of the 403. No, not north. West. We're going to have a geography

educational session here. Okay, so I'm with you. Oakville. Burlington. Hamilton. Hamilton. We do cross the Burlington Skyway and then we get into,

this is just a technicality because of whatever postal code, some of Ancaster and... Is it called Dundas? Dundas, Ontario. That's not a part of that now we're getting

further but what about Brampton Brampton no there's unfortunately no love for Brampton alright we gotta fix that there's a lot of

listeners in Brampton I know I know earlier I teased that Michael Lang was gonna jump on the third mic but I don't know where the hell he is

so if you can see him Park City Boots is that her that's her right there do you wanna wave her over like just see if she wants to jump on if you can see him. Park City Boots? Is that her? That's her right there. Do you want to wave her over? Like, just see if she wants to jump on.

They might be leaving. I'm waving to her. Nobody can see. Oh, no, she's gone. What's the significance of June 13th on her sweater? Do you have any guesses? Maybe something to do with Park City Boots. I feel like she's a big Raptors person.

Hey, what does June 13th mean? On the Park City Boots. I feel like she's a big Raptors person. Hey, what does June 13th mean on the Park City Boots? What's her name? The Park City Boots lady. Samantha? Okay. Do you know the significance? I was going to put her on the mic, Samantha, but she didn't receive my wave.

Okay, so we can't hear Troy. He's not on the microphone here. Okay, so Duran Duran, tell me about seeing Duran Duran. Yeah, I saw them at the amphitheater about three years ago with my younger brother. So that was quite an experience. phone here. Okay, so Duran Duran, tell me about seeing Duran Duran. Yeah, I saw them at the amphitheater about three years ago with my younger brother.

So that was quite an experience. It was Duran Duran and Chic. Yeah, okay. And that's a big deal. Now, I'm going to guess, were there a

lot of 40-something year old women at this concert? Oh, yeah. I used to work at the most amphitheater years ago when I was in college as like a

beer slugger. Wow. Yeah. I like all the old stuff. You know, I'm SmartServe certified. Oh, you're SmartServe. Okay. So if you need help, just call me.

I could diversify my income streams as I say. Okay, that was Duran Duran. And I'm going to start up another one. Oh, there you go. I went out for a ride and I never went back Like a river that don't know where it's flown I took a wrong turn and I just kept going Everybody's got a hungry heart Everybody's got a hungry heart Lay down your money and you play your part Everybody's got a heart We'll be right back. I'm in the Kingstown bar. We fell in love, I knew it had to end.

We took what we had and we lived in a bar. Now here I am down in Kingstown again. Everybody's gone. Have you seen Bruce Springsteen in concert? I have not. That's one person I have not seen. I would love to. Because apparently he does a whole three hour set

without stopping. Yeah, he's a maniac. He's the boss. He's the boss. He is the boss. Look at you. I like your appreciation for the artists

from yesteryear because sometimes I get a guy like you who's, are you going to reveal your age or is it a secret? What's your age? 29.

29. Like sometimes you get a 29 year old and they sort of like, they don't go back and listen to Duran Duran and Bruce Springsteen. No, I love him a lot. Do you pick the music that plays in the retail store? I used to when I was in the retail store more Like, they don't go back and listen to Duran Duran and Bruce Springsteen, right?

No, I love them a lot. Do you pick the music that plays in the retail store? I used to when I was in the retail store more. And then a lot of us have the same love for the same music, which is good. I find that's actually like an industry thing. You find craft beer and music, whether it be the indie or the older stuff, seems to be, I guess, the popular. Amazing, amazing. That guy walking up to us, I guess, the popular. Oh. Amazing. Amazing. That guy walking up to us,

I think, is from Daily Red. Oh. I met him last night. Do you know his name? No. So we can look like we're prepared.

I'll just say, hey, you. That's definitely, yeah. Okay, yeah, he's got the hat. He has the hat. He's got the hat.

So, okay, this is exciting. We're going to, and in a way, he's going to sit there. Okay. You can stay on that mic so he can sit there.

That chair is wet though, do you see? I think there's a leak. Oh, I see. Between the tent. I just don't want him to sit on a wet chair. We have to alert the authorities here. Oh yeah, he's

going to wipe it. Look at this. We have a gentleman wiping it down right now. We can't put the poor Daily Bread food guy in the wet chair because he'll be uncomfortable. He collects food for the food insecure in this city. Yeah, I find it fascinating. Chad, do you want to be my permanent co-host of Toronto Bikes?

You're pretty good at this. I'm enjoying this very much. I would love people who work for these. Wipe it down. People who work. Oh, it's okay. You can just go off mic and yell at him. It's okay.

Wipe it down. You can just go off mic and yell at him. It's okay. Wipe it down. Here, we're just going to get a chair for the gentleman from the Daily Bread Food Bank. I really want to talk to him. Here, I'll start up another hunger song while we wait for him, the nameless gentleman. I've been meaning to tell you I've got this feeling of warm suicide I look at you and I fantasize

You're mine tonight Now I've got you in my sights With these hungry eyes One look at you and I I wanna hold you so hear me out I wanna show you what love's all about Darling tonight I've been tonight Now I've got you in my sights With these hungry eyes

One look at you and I can't disguise I've got hungry eyes I feel the magic between you and I I've got hungry eyes Now I'll get you in my sights With those hungry eyes Now did I take you by surprise? I need you to see

This love was meant to be We have a special guest with us, Andrew from Daily Bread Food Bank. How are you doing? I'm very well. Very well this morning. Good to see you. Now, I know you're masked up here, so we're going to get you to get as close as you can to the mic and project into that thing. Masked up and fogged up. I guess I don't really have to. We're outside.

Yeah, well, that's the thing. The ventilation couldn't be better out here. Exactly. I haven't recorded indoors with someone since March 13th. Same with me. Get Andrew comfortable here. Okay, Andrew, so tell us, what do you do at the Daily Bread Food Bank? Okay, Andrew, so tell us, what do you do at the Daily Bread Food Bank?

So I'm the manager of corporate partnerships, an opportunity to do stuff like this, which is fantastic. We're good community partners who come out and run events for us and just contribute greatly to the amount of food we have to get this season. As you know, we're unable to run events ourselves right now, so we had to cancel our big Christmas food drive. We have to raise somewhere around 400,000 pounds of public donations, non-perishables, going into holiday season. So stuff like this is just incredible for us. And could you reiterate for us, like how dire is the need in the city right now

to replenish the supplies at our food banks? To use the... And right, and then again, because it's important info, just project as close as you can to the mic here so i don't miss anything yeah of course um well i mean to overuse the phrase more than ever at this point seen a 51 rise in our usage in the last eight months ever since covet obviously right exacerbating unemployment and food bank use uh right now we're feeding upwards of 25,000 people a week across our 170 agencies in the city. So the demand is just unbelievably skyrocketed and we're doing much more with far

less than we ever had before. You know, we'd have volunteer groups coming through, sorting, corporate teams doing it. This time of year we'd have a hundred people at a time on our sorting floor and we're having to do this with like 15 people so it's a kind of a perfect perfect shit storm can i use that term now i'm just coining that the perfect storm it's a scientific term for it too yeah we should start using that because you have more people than ever needing the service and you have uh due to the same cause which is the covid19 pandemic you it's more difficult than ever, I suppose, to collect and replenish the supply. And at least I was telling Troy,

it's great that they did that. I just did this thing called, this thing is called Toronto Miracle. Oh, yeah, yeah. That was a big thing last week. Okay. Unbelievable. Of course, we're a big part of it.

Yeah, of course. And we did a whole episode on that. So I drained my swamp, collected as many things as I could, and I basically annoyed everybody I know and love that we need to. Because you're a team captain, as they would call you, a champion. Well, yeah, we have community, yes. Okay, so I was in the original 12 people that met on the zoom call in october i'm one of those oh fantastic man okay cool well my friend jordan linek uh yeah yeah she roped me into that of

course yeah she's fantastic well she had many years yeah at second harvest right and uh she's a great yeah she's great but her friend i gotta shout out her friend jody because jody is the one who said hey we should do this in toronto and like so some people i i think because i was so vocal about this on Twitter, a couple of people were like, is this your baby? And I have to just let the world know. Jody Naftal, I think is how you say her last name. But she's the reason. She said, let's do this. She, you know, contacted her friend Jordan.

And then Jordan said, Mike, please join us. And then the rest is history. But this event here, so events like this are vital to fight hunger. Can you tell us anything else you can tell us about Daily Bread Food Bank and what you do to help the food insecure in this city? Yeah, certainly. Aside from just being a food bank, a food bank is just kind of in many ways a Band-Aid for a daily-ish, day-to-day sort of thing.

So we take a long-term look at the roots of food insecurity and poverty. And so we do a lot of research and advocacy. Our department there will do tons of frontline research to identify the barriers facing people that lead to food insecurities. And from that, we'll develop policy and lobby governments at all three levels

to make improvements, stuff like affordable housing, daycare, improvements for Ontario Works, et cetera, et cetera. We try to look at poverty from a 360-degree view, not just to get you to your next meal and onwards. A year ago, if I had contacted you a year ago and I said, in one year's time, you're going to be sitting outside in a typhoon. Right. What would you have said to me?

Well, I mean, if you told me a year ago that I'd be at Great Lakes Brewery, I'd probably wouldn't be surprised. So do you drink Great Lakes? How do I put this lightly? Yeah. What are your favorite beers from Great Lake? Well, Canuck, man. Canuck is my, like, come on.

The Canuck is a game changer. It's a, I think, I've always said this, but it can, I think, change any mainstream, you know, your Moosehead, your Keese, you know. I think you could switch. It's a gateway drug to the Capri, and it's always my favorite. That's the word, yeah.

And it's unbelievable. Oh, no, you know, you're always my fridge. So this is a partnership made in heaven. I very aggressively pursued this project. That's funny. You guys are in New Toronto, right? What's that street called? New Toronto Street.

It's an old canning factory. How appropriate. Okay, because I'm a New Toronto advocate, if you will. Don't call us Mimico. Of course. I'm a New Toronto advocate, if you will. Because don't call us Mimico. Of course. I'm a New Toronto guy. And New Toronto gets lost in the mix, I think, because you've got Mimico on one side and Long Branch,

and everyone knows these places or whatever. But New Toronto is like, I remember my buddy Mark, and he's like, when I moved to New Toronto, he's like, that's not the name of that. There's no New Toronto. I'm like, Google map New Toronto. We're there in the middle. And it's really kind of a tall, but you guys are there.

So how long have you guys been in New Toronto? We've been in that particular facility since 2000. 2000, okay. So sometimes when I'm going to my, you know, that's that intersection where the No Frills is, right? So I go to that No Frills. I don't know if that's Drummond or Dwight, but I always laugh that Dwight meets Drummond.

Oh, yeah. You're the Dwight Drummond guy. Yeah, there you go. Shout out to Dwight Drummond. CBC is here, so there you go. Oh, yeah. Where's Dwight? He should be on the scene here, but Dwight's a good FOTM.

But, Andrew, so the tweeting I see is from Neil, right? So do you work closely with Neil? Is it Heatherington? Heatherington. Mr. Neil Heatherington, our CEO. That's a fancy name. Commander-in-chief. Fancy guy.

He's a good dude. He'll be showing his face around here today, I'm sure. Well, my buddy Cam Gordon from Twitter Canada says, Neil's a good tweeter, so give him props. Yeah, of course. Absolutely. For sure. You know, I'm not sure it's him the entire time.

Is that right? Okay, there's some real talk right there. We have a pretty, I don't know, give you a behind-the-scenes look. We have a pretty talented communications team. Oh, my goodness. Because, you know, Chuck D does his own tweeting. Oh, okay. I don't know.

Neil's got the team behind him there. I compare Neil to Chuck D. It's my boss. I put myself in a bad space. But they're both good people. Yeah. Both important people here. Hard work and fantastic passion.

He'll be around here, but I'm sure he'll be happy to sit down with you, too. We were kicking out Hunger Songs, and you missed a bunch. I'll give you a little update on what you missed. I am going to play my favorite hunger song in a moment. Let's see. We played Bob Marley and the Wailers. I always get the name of that song wrong, so I'm going to look it up. It's called Them Belly Full, but We Hungry.

So we kicked that out. We kicked out Phil Collins, Another Day in Paradise. We kicked out Duran Duran, Hungry Like the Wolf. Oh, yeah. And that was for Chad, who saw Duran Duran at the Mulfin Amphitheater. I did. Or was it the Budweiser Stage? Budweiser Stage now, right?

Well, it's the amphitheater. Get those corporate names brought, right? Still this guy don't remember me too. Bruce Springsteen we kicked out. Hungry Heart. And of course... Heavy Sax in that. Clarence Clemens' nephew

has been over to my new Toronto studio. He now took over for his uncle. Oh yeah, I think I did know that. They call him the little big man. Yeah. I think that's what they're calling him now. So, okay.

Eric Carman, Hungry Eyes. All right. I think I just heard that as we sat down, actually. I've heard it more than once today. And I'm going to play with you here my favorite Hunger song. Please. Won't surprise anyone, I don't think. Oh, there you go.

Little temple. Do you want to sing along? I don't think that's a good idea. Yeah. It'll scare everyone off. Chad, do you enjoy this Temple of the Dog gem? This is good, yeah. I don't mind stealing bread from the mouths of decadents.

But I can't beat all the powerless When my cup's already overfilled Yeah, do another without my silly air. Yeah, nice. But it's on the table, the fire's cooking And the farming babies and slaves are working The blood is on the table and the mouths are choking So, Andrew, do we have any idea, and I know he's got a crazy schedule because I heard him on Sounds of the Season yesterday

when I was listening with FOTM Jill Deacon, but do we have any idea when Neo might be arriving? Much like an apparition, I think he'll kind of come with the wind. It's self-limit co-breeze, neutral co-breeze. Okay, because I'm calling an audible that I might wrap this up to get it out there so there's still hours left in your event here today. So again, here, let me go to my nose. This is the important stuff.

While I play Hunger Strike from Temple of the Dog. And thank you, Bob Ouellette, who came over and did this whole... We did a deep dive into Pearl Jam, and he sent me the Howard Stern interview with Eddie Vedder because I don't have a SiriusXM subscription. But I have the file now, and I can't wait to dive in and hear that. Eddie Vedder's I don't have a SiriusXM subscription, but I have the file now and I can't wait to dive in and hear that. Eddie Vedder's always good to listen to. Yeah,

are you kidding me? Just the way he taught, just everything about him. He's a wise fellow. Someone here over at the Amphitheater, he visited Toronto Island that day and he went on a good 10 minute thing. He's like, Toronto, you're so blessed to have this green space right outside.

Positive, good man. good 10 minute thing he's like Toronto you're so blessed to have this green space right outside like positive good man yeah he's someone for sure give a shout out to Gord on the he's playing a show oh yeah

in Chicago at Wrigley Field yeah it's a really important concert happened tonight in Canada yeah August 20, 2016 I always thought that was yeah it was totally cool

that my my American rock hero Eddie Vedder was shouting out my Canadian rock hero, Gord Downie. Love and respect to all. That's amazing. Okay, so this event we're at right now, this is the GLB Holiday Food Drive in support of Daily Bread Food Bank. Andrew's with me from Daily Bread Food Bank. It's running until 4 p.m. today if you're listening early.

So I'm going to drop this thing while the event's happening. And if you're an early bird who jumps on this, and hopefully that's a bunch of you, come to Great Lakes Brewery with your non-perishable food items. And we're also accepting cash

that'll go towards Daily Bread Food Bank. And cash, like Andrew, speak to this. I heard from my good friend Jordan, who worked at Second Harvest, that you guys can stretch the dollar better than anybody. Certainly.

People forget giving money to you, that goes a lot further than if we went to our no frills and bought food with that money and gave it to you. Yeah, I try to encourage that when I can. The adage, cash is king. So you wouldn't know, but food banks purchase a good amount of our goods to stretch how we get out to people so we rely on about 70 donations but 30 of that is purchased which didn't sound like a lot but you know we think about upwards of uh six million dollars a year that we're right we spent on food was before COVID. So we're having to fill the gap greatly now.

And we have terrific purchasing power with that. So financial donations go a lot, a long way. So if somebody listening in this event, let's say the event's over when somebody listens, that's going to happen. So, Andrew, what is the best way for somebody to give their money

to Daily Bread Food Bank? Straightforward, dailybread.ca, my friends. Go on. You can make up a monthly gift, a one-time gift, just anything over a $10 financial donation receives a charitable tax receipt. Yeah. You can go on that way. There's many different ways to engage and encourage you to kind of,

like you said, your food drive the other day. Amazing. Let's all step up. All the FOTMs listening right now, let's step up and help out here. We need you. This is dire. This is Code Blue? Can I call it Code Blue? I think you can call it Code Blue.

What's after Code Blue? Is it red? I don't know these colors. Come on, Chad. My cousin works for a hospital and he told me them and I just didn't listen. Or DEFCON 5. I'd like to go back to the post-9-11 warnings that we were getting. I remember that, yeah. Be vigilant, I think.

I've decided to adopt that every day of my life. Just always be vigilant. Be vigilant. Okay, so thank you Andrew from Daily Red Food Bank. Amazing. And Chad, you were a great co-host today. Thank you. But of course, Troy. Troy had to get to work, so we had to

kick him out. But thank you, Troy Birch, for the invitation. This is a great event. Great cause. I can't wait to watch CBC News, because I think we might be on it. We took a little footage of us, so that's exciting right there. And lowest of the low? Do you like lowest of the low? I do, man. Absolutely.

For sure. I heard it's the 29th anniversary of the release of Shakespeare, My Butt. Yeah, right. Which is still, this song is from Shakespeare, My Butt, but still a... Can't count royalty, man. Dude, they're like the Toronto Mike.

They played this patio. Oh, yeah. Were you there? Chad, no, you weren't there. I didn't think you were there that day. That's fine. They played a Toronto Mike listener experience on that very patio. Ron Hawkins and Lawrence Nichols from Lowest and Low.

They were fantastic. Yeah, fantastic. Cool. Daily. These GLB guys, man. They're just Toronto blood. Yeah. Yeah.

It's like every time I see a Great Lakes truck driving by, I salute. It's like, there's Toronto right there. Amazing. I had to do a two-week quarantine at one point back from traveling just as I hit GLB. When I brought that home delivery, it was like, welcome back. You're safe. You're safe with us.

Yeah. And that brings us to the end of our 769th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Andrew, follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Andrew, are you on Twitter? I am not. But you can follow Daily Bread Food Bank on Twitter. Follow Daily Bread Food Bank on Twitter.

At Daily Bread. At Daily Bread. And what about you, Chad? Are you on Twitter? I'm not on Twitter either. I used to be, but... No, Twitter's for old people. You said it, not me.

Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery, though, they're on Twitter. Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta's at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. Sammy Cone, at Sammy Cone. Cone is K-O-H-N.

And Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley F-H. Another great new Toronto business there. See you all next week. The day is coming up, rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow holds me today. This podcast has been produced by TMDS

and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RoamPhone.ca to get started.