Feeding families is at the heart of what we do. On our mission to reduce food waste in our operations, we’re working with likeminded partners to reduce food waste in our stores and supply chain and are engaging our customers to reduce waste at home. Our approach to reducing food waste is based on the following three tiers:
Food is at the heart of our Thrifty Foods stores, and our passion is to help feed those in need.
Food insecurity affects 14% of people in the Greater Victoria Area of British Columbia. Thousands of individuals and families struggle to access fresh food every day. Thrifty Foods launched the Food Rescue program in 2017 to provide rescued fresh produce and near-to-expired deli and dairy products to 35,000 food insecure neighbours annually.
In collaboration with the Greater Victoria Food Share Network, the Mustard Seed Street Church, and 55 other participating organizations, the program diverts approximately 10,000 pounds of food per day, six days a week to feed people in need – food that would have otherwise been destined for landfill.
We have provided daily donations to food banks across B.C. for the past 30 years. Together with our customers, we have donated over $2.5 million in groceries to those in need. In the last two years, we have raised funds for the Island Food Caring Campaign, building capacity for the Food Rescue Project to give more individuals access to fresh, healthy food every day. Now in its second year, we have cumulatively raised nearly $70,000 to support more than 50,000 people in our community.
At our Allen Street Sobeys store in PEI, a local partnership blossomed with Prince Street School to provide smoothies for school breakfasts and help reduce food waste. The program uses imperfect produce that no longer meets the needs of our customers as ingredients for nutritious smoothies. Store Manager, Jeff Jenkins, and Chef, Nathan Schoenfeldt, helped donate our less-than-perfect produce and crafted delicious, nutritious smoothie recipes for the school’s breakfast program to help nourish young minds.
We face significant challenges with food waste and food insecurity in Canada: The average Canadian throws out about 170 kilograms of food per year. Still, one in eight households struggles to access healthy food every day. Our partnership with Love Food Hate Waste helps educate Canadians about how to reduce food waste in their homes. By sharing delicious recipes designed to repurpose ingredients at home, our campaign helps people use up what they have and reduce the amount of food they throw out.
We are passionate about feeding families. Unfortunately, many of our neighbours do not have the resources to put healthy food on the table. In 2017, our Sobeys stores and distribution centres launched a food rescue program in collaboration with Feed Nova Scotia. The program donates surplus food that no longer meets the needs of our customers but is still safe for consumption to more than 100 local food banks and food programs, annually contributing to more than 100,000 meals across the province.
We have partnered with Montreal-based LOOP, which produces juices, smoothies, and other beverages from imperfect-looking or injured produce, in an effort to reduce avoidable food waste. LOOP collaborates with major food industry actors to save perfectly good products from being discarded in landfills before they ever reach the grocery store. We are proud to be the first national grocery retailer to provide rescued produce to LOOP from our warehouses. Over the past year, through our partnership with LOOP, we have prevented 547 tonnes of produce from going to landfill, avoiding 481 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, and saving nearly 50 million liters of water... Read More
Learn more about their products here: https://loopmission.com/ Read Less
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