Food loss and waste initiatives gain momentum

Toronto – The Walmart Foundation wants to help reduce food loss and waste. So it gave several expert organizations based in Ontario grants to make a dent in the issue.

Walmart gave $3,453,576 to the Daily Bread Food Bank and Second

Matt Kennedy of Kennedy Orchards with “rescued” apples about to be donated to Second Harvest. Second Harvest and Daily Bread Food Bank have partnerships with farms and growers to rescue and distribute edible produce to social service agencies and people in need. (CNW Group/Daily Bread Food Bank)

Harvest, which are both based in Toronto.

The Daily Bread Food Bank will use its share funding to support its Farm to Food Bank program, which will provide more fresh produce to food bank clients and reduce food waste from local farms.

Second Harvest will use its share of the funding to support evidence-based solutions for food recovery. It’s also going to work with Value Chain Management International to examine why and how food loss happens.

And Second Harvest will also launch FoodRescue.ca, an online system that provides businesses access to quickly donate surplus food of any kind.

The Walmart Foundation also gave $520,049 to the Guelph, Ont.-based Canadian Centre for Food Integrity, which will work with Provision Coalition to probe Canadian attitudes on food waste and to assist food and beverage businesses make measurable food waste reductions in their facilities.

The Canadian Centre for Food Integrity is a non-profit, charitable organization that helps Canada’s food system earn trust by coordinating research, resources, dialogue and training.

Provision Coalition is a food and beverage manufacturer sustainability organization and a leader in food loss and waste prevention and reduction strategies for the industry.

And Mississauga, Ont.-based Food Banks Canada received $2.8 million, which it will use to:

• Build capacity of food banks to obtain, store and share more fresh and perishable items;
• Encourage collaboration and knowledge exchange to build more efficiency and effectiveness;
• Expand food acquisition technology so that more surplus and available food makes it into the hands of the people who need it;
• Build the ability for greater evaluation and impact measurement so that we know how effective our work is at making an impact on hunger and reducing the need for food banks longer term.