Fighting food waste

A new app in Niagara is working to fight food waste one delivery at a time.

Instead of ending up in a landfill, food that businesses aren’t able to sell, could end up in the stomach of someone in need.

“There is a lot of food that we can’t sell, that we throw out, but its still consumable.” said Dean Cruickshanks, owner of Dean’s No Frills.

That’s the idea behind the app “Food Rescue.” It connects businesses, like Dean’s No Frills in Beamsville with non-profit organizations across Niagara.

“Unfortunately sometimes food gets to the best before date, it just doesn’t sell. Now we can use Food Rescue instead of throwing them out. Go onto the app and they’ll come pick them up.

The agencies are notified each time a food donation becomes available for pick-up.

“It is a bit of “a who can grab it first” type of thing and whoever clicks the button for the rescuing, they’re the ones that are supposed to pick it up.” said Lynda O’Donnell.

With a focus on perishable foods, which is often difficult for low income residents to access.

Each year Canadians waste $31 billion worth of food. That’s equal to 15 billion pounds of food that ends up in the trash.

The website is live, and the first round of food rescues are expected to begin any day now. But donors are still needed in Niagara.

“It could be anyone from a restaurant, grocery stores. Could be a chain or small mom and pop business.”

Right now the website is a pilot project that’s also being tested in Sudbury and Kingston, and if successful it will be scaled out across Canada.