Where it all started.
Lionhearts’ story began here in Kingston, Ontario, when Founder and CEO Travis Blackmore partnered with Costco to rescue thousands of pounds of produce that would have otherwise been thrown away. The first load, 800 pounds of strawberries, was quickly given to local frontline agencies, setting the tone for everything that followed: rescuing what would have been wasted and putting it in the hands of people who need it most.
From those early days, Kingston’s food recovery program grew to include partnerships with bakeries, grocery stores, event venues, and national supplier; building a network that kept more food out of landfills and into the hands of people in need.
When the pandemic hit, Kingston became the birthplace of Lionhearts’ Community Nutrition Program, producing and distributing more than 345,000 meals during the height of COVID-19. These meals, served in local parks, provided connection and relief when many frontline meal providers had shut their doors. Today, Kingston’s Community Nutrition kitchen continues to produce thousands of meals each week for shelters and agencies.
This period also saw the opening of shared warehouse space in Kingston in partnership with the City of Kingston, and the United Way of Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox, and Addington, providing Lionhearts and other food charities the capacity to store, sort, and distribute larger-scale donations to charities across the region.
Kingston is also home to The Embassy, a pop-up live music café in a safe, alcohol-free venue; vocational training programs in laundry and culinary services; transitional housing for individuals ready to rebuild their lives; and the Adelaide Shelter, which provides 55 beds nightly with seasonal overflow space.
Today, Kingston remains the heart of Lionhearts’ operations, a place where new programs are born, partnerships grow, and lives are changed as we work towards our mission of eradicating hunger and homelessness.
