Special Delivery

Sai Dham Food Bank provides direct-to-your-door services to seniors and people living with disabilities in Toronto, Canada.

- Claire Sibonney

ON A CRISP spring morning in a neighbourhood near Toronto Pearson International Airport, Sophia Niro* awaits a delivery of free groceries. The septuagenarian is expecting a couple of crates—a frozen turkey for Easter, milk, eggs, fresh fruits and vegetables, dried pasta, tomato sauces, soups and beans, as well as flour for making her own bread.

Dressed elegantly in slacks and a beaded sweater, Niro has one weak leg and uses a cane to walk. She’s clutching it as she stands at the back door of her brick low-rise to let in Vishal Khanna; she doesn’t want him or the two volunteers accompanying him to have to lug 40 kilograms of food from the parking lot around to the main entrance at the front of the apartment building.