A new food hall featuring restaurants run by refugees and newcomers to Toronto has opened in North York.
Food Hall TO is an “incubator food-court,” seeking to eradicate poverty, and decrease food insecurity by supporting small business ventures.
“Our mission is to advance entrepreneurship through business incubation while decreasing food waste and encouraging healthy and responsible consumption and production,” its website says.
The food hall officially opened to the public one week ago and houses five food vendors owned by new arrivals to Canada.
Cuisine options range from Caribbean jerk BBQ, to steamed Boa, vegan subs, curry, Texas BBQ and Burritos.
Each outlet doubles as a learning space where young incubator students who are new to the country can learn the ropes of running a kitchen with the guidance of experienced mentors from Flip Kitchen, an education program run by Feed Scarborough.
“With FoodHall as their launchpad, these culinary visionaries have the liberty to shape their dream restaurants,” the Food Hall TO website says.
One such owner is Bilal, an accountant who fled Bangladesh in 2023 due to political unrest and the risk of persecution. In Canada, he chose to pursue his love of cooking and through Food Hall TO’s entrepreneur incubator was able to open Just Curry.
Arun and Namarta chose to leave their home country of India to pursue their culinary dreams of bringing a taste of home to the city. Food Hall TO helped facilitate the opening of their vegetarian and vegan sandwich spot, SUB G.
Other outlets include Momo & Bao, run by Kenyan refugee Sylvester, Burro Loco, owned by Bangladeshi refugee Suprasad, and Spice Island from Patient Mbala, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Food Hall TO is located at 5210 Yonge Street and is open from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday.
