Friends Restaurant & Friends Catering

Q: If you had to choose between buying food and buying public transit tickets, what would you do?

Many people living on fixed incomes have very difficult choices to make every day. 

Friends Restaurant makes it possible to eat AND go to the doctor. Two affordable and nutritious meals are offered each weekday. Credit is offered to anyone who is unable to pay.

Friends Catering Company is a social enterprise and is a natural extension of Friends Restaurant. In 2011, Friends catering filled 268 catering orders. The United Way, government funders and private funders such as the McCutcheon Foundation have helped make it possible. 

So, why not choose Friends Catering for your next workplace staff meeting or special occasion? You will support a very worthwhile social enterprise at the same time as getting great food at reasonable rates. Check out the menu here!

Anne, (see story below) used Friends Restaurant to launch her life’s work. 

Anne grew up in Venezuala before coming to Canada.  She struggled with strict parents and the conflicting values of life as a teenager in Toronto.  When Anne found out she was pregnant, she ran away in fear to live on the streets until she found welcome shelter at Fred Victor Women’s Hostel. From the beginning, Anne was determined to make a plan for herself and her child.  She stayed three years at Fred Victor Housing while she attended George Brown College and earned her diploma.  She volunteered then trained in food services at Friends Restaurant. Today, Anne is reunited with her daughter and reconciled with her parents.  An optimistic and ambitious person, she is  hoping to open a small inn outside Toronto where she will continue offering her sunny hospitality.  Congrats, Anne!

Click here to DONATE to Fred Victor’s food access and community programs.

Friends Restaurant and Friends Catering Company are located at 145 Queen Street in the Queen and Jarvis Centre.

Friends Catering’s main aim is to train, mentor and offer jobs to people who have not worked for a long time, who lack the confidence to seek work or who have some mental or physical limitations. A social enterprise generates profit in order to further a social goal.

The catering business employs three- to- five Fred Victor tenants or service users who have had previous volunteer and/or training experience at Friends Restaurant, and other people who meet the criteria for training. A catering manager operates the business and a support worker attends to the needs of employees, trainees and volunteers.

As well as preparing healthy meals for the community, Friends Restaurant is a perfect training space for the Career Directions in Hospitality program offered in conjunction with Fred Victor’s Employment and Training Services.