Feed Scarborough, one of the largest food banks in Toronto, will no longer be affiliated with the Daily Bread Food Bank network after allegations of financial mismanagement.
Daily Bread confirmed to CityNews that as of Jan. 31, it has cut ties with Feed Scarbrough over allegations of financial and governance mismanagement, specifically claiming that Daily Bread had found evidence of discrepancies in the organization’s invoices to defend past expenditures.
Those allegations of mismanagement have been sent to Toronto police who tell CityNews they are now investigating. Currently, no charges have been laid, and none of the allegations have been tested in court.
“We retained external legal counsel to conduct a comprehensive financial investigation and shared our findings with the appropriate authorities, including the Toronto Police Service,” said Daily Bread CEO Neil Hetherington in a statement.
Daily Bread acts as a central distribution hub and support system for a network of 144 member agencies that run more than 200 local food bank programs.
Feed Scarborough receives millions of dollars’ worth of food each year from the Toronto charity and between 2021 and 2023, received grant funding totaling $620,000.
According to Daily Bread, their financial audits discovered discrepancies in Feed Scarborough’s invoices that may have inflated how much grant money they were receiving, in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Feed Scarborough’s Founder and CEO Suman Roy tells CityNews in an email statement that, upon learning of these allegations, the group’s board promptly hired a third party to perform its own forensic audit.
He said Feed Scarbrough is cooperating with the police investigation and is confident that no Daily Bread funds were used for non-charitable purposes.
In February, SOSO ministries will be working to continue support for Feed Scarborough clients.
