A charity that takes food destined for the landfill and redistributes it to those in need has been left reeling following a devastating act of vandalism over the Thanksgiving long weekend.
Suspects cut through a security fence at the Second Harvest Etobicoke facility and then used power tools to steal valuable diesel components off of a seven different trucks, rendering half of their delivery fleet inoperable during one of the busiest times of the year and potentially costing them tens of thousands of dollars.
“We would estimate that the repairs on each of these vehicles would be in the neighbourhood of $10,000,” Duncan Salisbury, Vice-President of Supply Chain & Logistics at the Second Harvest tells CityNews. “Then we’re going to have to rent vehicles to cover this off. Then we’re going to have find third party carriers to bring in product that we can’t pickup. So this could cost us in the neighbourhood of $100,000,”
Security video obtained by CityNews shows there are at least two suspects.
“We’re a charity, we’re not for profit. One hundred thousand dollars to us is a lot,” he says, adding anyone who wants to help can do so by donating at secondharvest.ca.
Salisbury says while it’s difficult to think about this happening in the first place, to do it on a Thanksgiving weekend is “outrageous.”
“It’s considerably frustrating, especially on Thanksgiving weekend. People are relying on us to deliver them food on Tuesday.”
Salisbury says while they managed to get deliveries scheduled for Sunday out with the reduced number of trucks, the food rescue charity is furiously working to rejig delivery routes for Tuesday, trying to find every rental unit they can while also relying on third parties to help.
“We’re going to have to get very creative in what we deliver, when we deliver it, and how we deliver it,” he says. “We’ve got a great team here, everybody believes in our mission and we’ll do whatever we can to make it right.”
A police report has been filed but so far, no suspect information has been released.
This is not the first incidence of vandalism to hit the food charity’s Etobicoke facility. Back in January, at least four trucks had what is believed to be water poured into the gas tanks. Salisbury says it was because of that incident that the security fence, which was damaged in this latest incident, was installed.
A pair of Second Harvest delivery trucks are seen at the food charity’s Etobicoke facility on October 11, 2026. CITYNEWS/Jerome Gange
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