When you go grocery shopping, do you sometimes stop to think about the potential waste you're helping create? Be it the way everything is packaged, or how you may not use everything you buy, it's worth considering your impact and how you can help reduce it.
A market in Vancouver is hoping to help with that, aiming to combat food waste and food insecurity at the same time.
The Food Stash Foundation is an organization dedicated to reducing food waste, rescuing produce and other foods that were destined for landfills while being perfectly edible.
They would often deliver this food directly to those in need, but they've been saving such an excess that they're finding other ways to distribute it.
It will only be open for a few hours once a week, but it allows people to grab whatever they'd like and 'pay what they feel' rather than making set prices for each product.
This way, obtaining healthy food and fresh produce becomes far more accessible to those who otherwise might not have been able to afford it.
People don't need to be food insecure in order to shop there. The Food Stash Foundation makes it clear that anyone is welcome. It's a great way to both shop more sustainably and reduce one's grocery bills, and they have plenty to sell, so they're happy to take all customers.
When speaking to Good News Network, Food Stash Foundation's executive director Carla Pellegrini said, "There’s food waste at every level [of the supply-chain], whether it’s over-ordering, cancelled orders, the shape of the produce isn’t meeting the customer expectations, or approaching best-before dates.
"I was really, really surprised by how much food waste there is, how much food insecurity there is in Vancouver."
Farmers, grocers, and wholesalers all supply would-be food waste to the foundation, who then deliver it to other organizations. They even used to have a program where they would box the food and deliver it to families directly.
"85% of that 70,000 pounds of food doesn’t even make it back to our warehouse, it goes right back out the same day with our drivers to other organizations," said Pellegrini.
"We even end up with surplus at the end of our weekly operations; after the organizations and the boxes, we still sometimes have surplus, so we’re interested in offloading that."
They're operating the store with a zero-waste model, encouraging shoppers to bring their own bags, but also supplying some if needed.
This market will be an excellent addition to the local community and will not only help people with food insecurity, but also the environment as a whole.
h/t: Good News Network
