Toronto's secret donut shop overwhelmed after donating to residential school survivors
The disturbing announcement last month that 215 Indigenous children's remains had been found on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School left the nation reeling.
Fruitful Market, the organic shop and kitchen in Leslieville that started making donuts during the pandemic, heard the news of the mass grave and immediately wanted to do something to help.
During the news coverage, owner Yannis Banks noticed multiple mentions that if anyone affected in the Indigenous community needed mental health support, they could call the crisis line run by the Indian Residential School Survivors Society.
"With the gravity of that discovery, we wanted to do something that spread love and human connection while also raising money for the society," Banks said.
On Monday Fruitful Market's pre-orders for donuts were open and by Wednesday the shop had received a huge outpouring of orders.
"We were amazed by the amount of support. We were worried we couldn’t make that many donuts," Banks said.
People from all over the city were moved to give and the staff ended up making around 500 donuts and raising a total of $1,993 for the charity.
