Photo: Puneet Aurak/The Peak
Author: Hannah Fraser, News Writer
Since 2020, B.C. organizations Foodmesh and Georgia Main Food Group have worked together to build a network of 220 charities and farmers to distribute food to people living in food-insecure households. There is. With food insecurity at an all-time high, we're putting 3.5 million meals on the tables of British Columbians by donating unsold food from stores like IGA and Fresh Street Market. For more information, The Peak reached out to Megan Czerpak, her FoodMesh communications director.
“Food gets thrown away for a variety of reasons, depending on where it is in the supply chain,” Cherpak explained. For example, retailers may be unable to sell inventory if the food is expired, cosmetically defective, overstocked or incorrectly packaged, he said. . As a result, it will be “faster, easier and cheaper” for retailers to dispose of unsold food, Cherpak said. Georgia-Maine is working to keep the least salable food out of the waste stream as much as possible. According to Jessica Regan, her CEO and co-founder of FoodMesh, “more than half of the food produced in Canada is wasted,” demonstrating the “deep flaws in Canada's food system.”
“Since our cooperation began in April 2020, IGA and Fresh Street Market have avoided more than 2.1 million kilograms of food from going to waste,” Cherpak said.
Cherpak said Foodmesh is coordinating the daily collection of unsold food, “enabling us to rescue and redistribute food quickly and efficiently.” FoodMesh measures the amount of food each store is diverting, so “Georgia-Maine can track its progress toward its food waste reduction goals.”
“Since our collaboration began in April 2020, IGA and Fresh Street Market have prevented more than 2.1 million kilograms of food from going to waste.” — Megan Czerpak, FoodMesh.
For example, the Immigration Link Center Society (ILSC) picks up and delivers fresh food from Fresh Street Market for newcomers to Canada who can't afford groceries. CityReach Care Society also distributes food to underserved communities in Surrey, the Downtown Eastside, and 50 schools in the Greater Vancouver area.
“According to the latest Statistics Canada data, nearly 9 million Canadians, or approximately 23 per cent of the population, live in food-insecure households,'' Cherpak said.
Cherpak said he hopes that “other companies will see and follow the example that Foodmesh is setting for the industry.”