KarunaNews Story

Maddy Goldberg is a private chef who has extensive experience in the fine dining industry. But these days, you’ll catch her on social media sharing some newly-perfected recipes or sharing a vlog from an afternoon at the food bank. “POV: cooking lunch for 100 people using the random food I find at the food bank,” many of her videos are titled. Once a week, Goldberg posts up in the kitchen of the York Fort Food Bank in Toronto, Canada, where she makes gourmet meals with whatever she can find. While Goldberg began by using up whatever free and accessible ingredients were already available at the food pantry — often things like potatoes and eggs — friends in the culinary community realized they had things to contribute, too. “I’ve gotten a lot of responses from … chefs around the city who are either doing a pop-up or find themselves with an excess of food,” she told CBC News, “good quality ingredients that they just can’t fathom throwing out.” “It’s incredible to be able to give something to our clients that’s so high-end,” Julie Legion, the food bank’s executive director, added. “We want to provide an overall healthy, culturally-appropriate diet.” And for Goldberg, it’s all in good fun. “[I] love getting donations from other chefs in the city and giving their food new life,” she wrote in a recent social media caption.