“It was March 26, 2020 that we set up our first Free Food table – a wintry day, 2 weeks into the COVID lockdown”, says Mr. William Graham, MS E.d.
Graham, an octagenarian Veteran who saw WWII combat action, and his wife Shirley, a retired educator, set up two “Free Food” tables on Dundas Street in Cooksville.
Then they started to deliver food and necessary supplies to those they knew were in encampment areas or stranded in other outside areas, unable to access Region of Peel’s over-capacity shelters.
“By taking food to folks where they are, we can serve some of the people that Food Banks Mississauga and Regeneration Outreach Community cannot reach,” says Graham.
Information about these and other vital organizations are made available to service seekers. In 2020, the first food contributions came from individuals in local churches, members of Royal Canadian Legion – Cooksville Branch 582, members of Knights of Columbus Council 12706 and Regeneration Food Bank.
As COVID relief established, Mississauga Food Bank became a provisioner. To this day, each Saturday Cooksville Legion Ladies Auxiliary prepares fresh sandwiches that are set out on the Free Food tables. Peel Helping Hands network also sets out meals.
Tables are not monitored, but replenished at least once per day. Local anonymous donors bring water bottles or unopened food with current expiration dates directly to the tables. Through regular outreach via e-mail, since 2020 Graham sends updates to the Free Food table supporters network.
He writes of of need witnessed- a young woman sleeping in a park for 10 days — , and the folks for whom food supply made all the difference – a grateful middle-aged ODSP recipient had no money left for food at the end of the month found a meal that got him through the night.
Graham’s observations have been since July 2023 backed up by Free Food table monthly data reports. There is more people in need. Donations are levelling off and dipping somewhat and — winter is coming.
July 2023 reported over 8 thousand pounds of food collected and over 1,000 people served. November 2024 numbers jumped to more than 20,000 pounds of food collected and 3100 people served. Now, in July 2025 there was 22,000 pounds of food collected and 3440 people served.
Over the past 5 years, Graham has drawn his narrative and his numbers to the attention of local politicians and services providers in delegations and letters to City and Region of Peel Councillors.
He is deeply frustrated by the gaps for housing and homelessness solutions that are overextending the Cooksville Free Food tables intended as a temporary COVID emergency response.
“Leave no Neighbour behind” is the motto of Knights of Columbus, a faith-based community service organization of which Graham is a member. “We (Shirley and myself) are honored and privileged to be able to serve our neighbors in need in this way,” he says. “However, we are just the delivery people and could do very little without the magnificent support in this community. We are grateful for their help.”
If you are part of a Church, School, Store or Social group or just an individual, and want to help, your help is needed and appreciated by ourselves and those who we are privileged to serve.
You might decide to have a food drive at regular intervals. The mandated pandemic lockdown shuttered all food banks, shelters, public access to warming spaces and wi-fi such as public libraries, community centers, faith and cultural centres and even take-out restaurants.
COVID lockdowns continued intermittently for 27 months until June 2022 when emergency restrictions were lifted. Even lifted, conditions have nonetheless worsened. Since fall 2023, at least once daily Graham and Shirley fill five Free Food tables spanning Dundas Street from east of Dixie Road Erindale Station Road, close to bus stops.