Do you know the Muffin Man?
No, he doesn’t live on Drury Lane. He lives in Guelph, and you can often find him downtown alongside his daughter handing out muffins and other sweet treats to those in need.
Chris Vince, otherwise known as The Muffin Man, has been baking dozens of muffins for the community for just over a year, donating them to places like The Bench and Royal City Mission.
It all started because of his aversion to food waste, and a desire to help people in need.
With a name like The Muffin Man, you’d expect him to be an avid baker. But before he started baking for the community, he barely even cooked.
“I order through a speaker and my food comes out a window for the most part,” he said.
Still, he hates food waste.
His friend was always throwing out bananas, so Vince would stash them in his own freezer for safe keeping, and would make banana bread on a rare occasion.
When he heard it was national banana bread day in February 2023, his freezer bananas were piling up, so he decided to make some to share, taking six dozen banana bread muffins down to The Bench.
He’s been known as the muffin man ever since, investing his time and money into the community, and making everything from muffins to cookies, sandwiches and Rice Krispie squares.
“We want to make them accessible to anybody, because food should be a basic human right,” said his daughter, Ashley McGarr.
Often, she said people thank her dad "for the oatmeal cookie they took at midnight because they are diabetic and didn't have anything else."
He said they try to feed “marginalized folks, but if you’re hungry and you want something to eat, I don’t discriminate.”
Vince is living on ODSP himself, after breaking his femur, his toes, and getting a possible brain injury in a snowmobile collision seven years ago.
“I’m trying to do this on my disability money, when half of it goes to rent right off the top. I do have a little part-time job, but basically I’m spending all of my money on what we’re doing right now,” he said.
But it’s something they feel compelled to do.
He said the cracks in support are no longer just cracks – they’re gaping wide, and hard to ignore.
“Once you start participating and trying to be accessible as a resource, you can see how everyone can just so easily fall through,” McGarr said.
McGarr cleans bars several times a week around 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., a time where "there are no resources available to anybody. But the people who need stuff still congregate downtown because that’s where the resources are available later."
“It’s scary and it’s hard to watch," she said.
Her dad helps her out sometimes, and seeing the need “just broke his heart so hard that now he throws all his time and money at it.”
“It’s impossible to go down the street without thinking there’s something we could do (to help),” he said.
Besides helping Vince prepare and hand out food, McGarr has been running a free clothing store out of Royal City Mission.
She’s been donating clothes to The Bench for years, but in the last year or so started putting out a clothing rack with donations on her front lawn for people to access.
Eventually she started taking the rack to The Bench, and at the start of 2024 opened the store in Royal City Mission, which runs from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays and Sundays.
Around that same time, Vince secured a commercial kitchen spot by partnering with the Guelph Community Health Centre, where he now spends much of his time.
They might also be getting a van somewhere down the line, and are hoping to start a hot lunch with soup and sandwiches once a week – twice a week after Royal City Mission reduces its hours at the end of the month.
Working in a commercial kitchen rather than his home has already increased the amount of food they can produce each week.
Vince started out making 14 dozen banana muffins each week in his home, delivering them to The Bench, and now makes 24 dozen every week for The Bench, Royal City Mission and the CTS site. The community health van also takes some, so they make it out to places like Rockwood and Fergus as well.
On Tuesdays he’s been making up to 400 chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies; Thursdays he makes the muffins, and McGarr comes in to make 150 meat and egg salad sandwiches.
On Saturdays he makes around 100 chocolate-covered Rice Krispie squares with sprinkles that go to the CTS site and Rachel’s Saturday Table.
Many of the ingredients are donated, from The SEED, COBS Bread, Cargill or community members, but the rest come out of their own pockets.
Since he prefers to use premium ingredients, like pure vanilla extract, it can get costly.
Despite the financial strain, dedicating so much of his time to other people has had a tremendous impact on Vince.
“Before I started this, I was in a bad head space. I was smoking cigarettes, I was 60 lbs heavier.”
He quit smoking around the same time he first brought muffins to The Bench just over a year ago, and wanted to use the money he was saving on cigarettes to do something he couldn’t normally afford to do.
“I decided instead of doing debaucherous things, I would spend my money on doing something good for the community,” he said.
Now, he feels fulfilled with a renewed sense of purpose.
“A year and a half later, I’m still off the cigarettes. I just feel so good physically and mentally,” he said.
McGarr and Vince are accepting clothing and food donations – especially men’s clothes, men’s shoes, pure vanilla and oats – and can be reached on Facebook.
