Alberta (Rural Roots Canada) – Canada’s largest food rescue organization is turning farm surplus into food for families in need and is looking to build relationships with Alberta potato growers.
Second Harvest, a national nonprofit focused on reducing food waste, works directly with farmers, manufacturers, and processors to redirect perfectly edible food that might otherwise be tossed away.
“Our goal is to prevent as much food waste as possible, and put it into the hands of communities and families in need,” said Emily Owen, Senior Foodraising Manager for the Prairies at Second Harvest.
In the last five months, Owen and the team at Second Harvest have helped move more than 3.5 million pounds of potatoes from about ten farms in Manitoba. Much of that product, she said, was surplus or off-grade – food that couldn’t be sold on the market but was still perfectly safe, edible, and nutritious.
“The first donor I had, Macintosh Ventures, with a million pounds of potatoes, we were able to get them into 19 different non-profits,” she said. “And that actually doesn’t count all the hundreds of organizations within the Toronto-GTA area that we were able to touch as well. So it’s really amazing.”
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Last month, Owen was in Alberta speaking to potato growers at the Potato Growers of Alberta conference, hoping to build partnerships that can expand the program westward.
“I’m looking for help with a local processor who might be able to bag unwashed potatoes,” she said. “I think a lot of people believe the product needs to be washed. It doesn’t. It actually stores a lot longer unwashed.”
She’s also seeking local carriers who can provide bulk truckloads directly off farms, helping streamline the process of getting fresh produce to those in need.
“Farmers can load directly from their storage onto the bulk truck like they normally would for a McCain, Simplott, Cavendish,” Owen explained. And then off it goes to either a processor who can bag it for us, and then we move it on to the community in need.”
Second Harvest’s national network allows it to move food where it’s needed most, even when local food banks are at capacity.
“Sometimes it can be hard for a donor to donate their surplus, especially if there are other farms in that small community,” said Owen. “The food bank in that rural community or the city might not be able to handle all of that product. Second Harvest can move it throughout the province into all different sorts of programs that we’re linked with across Canada.”
The need has never been greater.
“Right now, 10 million people in Canada are food insecure, and 2.5 million of those are children. And one in four people in Canada don’t know where their next meal is coming from,” she noted. “Wth the high cost of living and persistent inflation, all of these things are adding up to pressure. And more people than ever are going to their local food bank or some food program to seek help.”
For Owen, the work is deeply personal, and one she hopes farmers can help with.
“I am just so proud to be part of this organization,” she said. “It’s really rewarding to be able to help farmers with surplus, that hard-earned product that they have put their heart and soul into that can’t be sold. Providing an option for them to keep feeding people, which is something that’s what they do best – feed our world. Put that into communities in need, and be able to tell the story about it, too, and show farmers what a wonderful option this is to help these amazing communities that need it.”
