Tom Truchan remembers a time not long ago when perishable food that didnāt sell was tossed in garbage bins at grocery stores, so he welcomes programs like working to reduce unnecessary food waste.
āYears ago stores would get maybe once-a-week pickup from a food bank,ā said Truchan, director of food safety with . āSo thatād be dry grocery products like canned beans and pastas, that stuff would go, and then bakery, some bread, because bread will last a few days. But anything that was highly perishable was all just going to the landfill.ā
Today, the companyās grocery stores are diverting an estimated 90 per cent of edible food to hungry people in Metro Vancouver, including milk, cheese, meat, produce, bread, unsold sandwiches, pre-made pizzas and pretty much everything else found on grocery store shelves.
In ŠŌŹÓ½ē“«Ć½, Georgia Mainās two Fresh St. Market stores are part of the FoodMesh program, now eight years running.
āWeāre a Vancouver-based company,ā said Jessica Regan, CEO and co-founder of FoodMesh, āand our job is to be the support infrastructure to connect food surplus with a recipient network of charities, farmers and alternative outlets for good, beautiful food thatās just unfortunately not sell-able but still rescue-able.ā
Some of that food is past the ābest beforeā date printed on the label, and thatās OK.
āOn most products, a best-before date means thatās when itās past its peak freshness,ā Truchan clarified, āso after the best-before date, the quality might start to decline but itās probably still good to eat. You know, itās like the clock starts ticking once you open a product.ā
More than half of the food produced in Canada goes to waste, Regan says ā āstaggering statisticsā that highlight āthe deep flaws in Canadaās food system.ā
Through FoodMesh, more than 220 charities are distributing food to people facing food insecurity. Georgia Main Food Group has donated close to 3.5 million meals since their partnership began in 2020.
āOur model is that we have one lead charity to pick up, and then they share it with a network of smaller agencies,ā Regan explained. āItās a hub-and-spoke model, then thereās a farmer network that can take what is no longer edible, and so itās really making sure that weāre directing that food to the best end-use.ā
Food pickup is done daily at the Fresh St. Market store in the Panorama area of ŠŌŹÓ½ē“«Ć½, twice weekly by Mani Rajaram, volunteer driver with Cloverdale Community Kitchen.
āIt really helps,ā he said, ābecause on average we feed around 600 families a day, and that involves the food bank, mobile meals and community meals where a lot of this food is used for cooking.ā
Food rescue in ŠŌŹÓ½ē“«Ć½: "Just because you canāt sell it doesnāt mean itās not good food"
ā Tom Zillich (@TomZillich)
Mani Rajaram, volunteer driver with Cloverdale Community Kitchen, collects boxes of food at Fresh St. Market store via program.
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Moosa Azizi, receiver at the store, makes sure the boxes and crates of food are ready for pickup.
āWe donāt want the stuff sitting around longer than it needs to, as fresh as possible, and make sure it doesnāt go to waste,ā Azizi said. āNot every place has a program like this, and Iāve seen a lot of stuff go to waste. Itās a no-brainer.ā
Food waste is a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, Regan noted.
āRetailers we work with, the decisions theyāre making are helping reduce those greenhouse gas emissions,ā she said, āand thatās a big deal because thereās the social impacts, thereās the environmental impact and the financial impact. By doing the right thing, it actually has a kind of a triple-bottom-line benefit.ā
Regan said there are 60,000 nonprofits across Canada doing food rescue.
āItās invisible work,ā she said. āOur job is not only helping create the matching and making sure that itās reliable pickups, but also measuring it to put a spotlight on this work because itās really important work thatās happening. In Metro Vancouver alone, thereās about 800 organizations directly benefiting from food rescue. We help make the best of the surplus situation, because thereās always going to be food surplus. Consumers are very particular and, you know, just because you canāt sell it doesnāt mean that itās not good food.ā
