The Walmart Foundation has granted Second Harvest, Canada’s largest food rescue organisation, US$510,000 to fund a research project addressing the barriers to recovering and redistributing surplus food.
Working with 50 companies in the food processing and manufacturing sector, among them are Provision Coalition, food industry sustainability experts, and Enviro-Stewards, environmental consultants. They will help to measure and track environmental and social impact from this project.
The desired result of this project is equipping companies with knowledge, tools and the ability to act in preventing waste and redistributing food for food rescue and community food programs.
In Canada, nearly 60 per cent of food produced is lost or wasted every year, of which 47 per cent comes from processing and manufacturing. When this food ends up in landfill, it generates 56.5 million metric tonnes of CO2 emissions every year. Meanwhile, one in seven Canadian families struggles to put food on the table, a number exacerbated by COVID-19.
“There is more than enough food produced in Canada and the world that no one ever needs to be hungry,” Second Harvest CEO Lori Nikkel said.
“With our partners at Provision Coalition and Enviro-Stewards and with the generous support of the Walmart Foundation, we are developing sustainable actions to address food waste that will support best practices, protect the environment and increase access to healthy food for all Canadians.”