The Stop
Building Community, Feeding Change
The Stop is a community-based not-for-profit located in Toronto’s west end that works alongside those seeking a healthier, more connected city. For over 35 years, The Stop has used food as a way to give everyone a seat at the table – fostering self-determination with marginalized peoples and driving social change. The Stop is an internationally recognized model that has been replicated in communities across Canada.
The Stop approached us to overcome brand and marketing challenges faced to growing philanthropic revenue — in particular, a lack of awareness of the organization’s mission.
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Working closely with The Stop team, we developed a simplified brand/messaging framework and compelling value proposition to engage potential donors, volunteers and clients with the core message: Growing community, feeding change. Following the brand framework, we developed four personas that drove UX and content design decisions by taking common user needs and bringing them to the forefront of planning before design started.
Redesigning the website provided us the opportunity modernize and refresh their branding and messaging and additional content areas, such as 'food of the month', event templates and a blog. Built as a custom WordPress site, the experience is fully authorable for their marketing team, without compromising the brand guidelines. Special attention was paid to photography and illustration, to authentically portray a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere at The Stop.
The finished product is a bright, modern, engaging website that’s easy for both clients — often marginalized individuals — and potential supporters alike to navigate, and that clearly communicates who The Stop is, what its mission is, and why support is critical. Additionally, we were able to position The Stop as so much more than a “food bank”, one of the misperceptions held by the community about their mission.
Illustrator: Flo Leung
Photographers: Taku Kumabe, Zoe Alexopoulos
Video editing: Josh Ingleby
