An initiative backed by the Quebec government, the first of its kind in Canada, will see more food not going to waste but to those who need it most.
On Friday, Economy Minister Dominique Anglade and Public Health Minister Lucie Charlebois announced the expansion of a pilot project that sees supermarkets donating unused food to food banks. The expansion will receive $400,000 of funding from Recyc-Quebec to defray the cost of transportation and gasoline.
The pilot project is already underway with 177 supermarkets participating. To date, it has recovered 2.5 million kilograms of food, including 500,000 kilograms of meat. It’s expected that the program will save 8 million kilograms of food.
Sam Watts, CEO of the Welcome Hall Mission, said the pilot project has been a resounding success.
“There is enough food in the province of Quebec to feed everybody who needs food,” said. “Our challenge has always been around management and distribution and then willingness of people to come together and partner. What we have here today is a willingness of people to come together and partner. We’ve demonstrated through the pilot project that management is possible and distribution is possible.”
Plans call for the project to expand to 611 stores within three years. By 2018, it’s expected that another 175 supermarkets belonging to the Provigo, Maxi, Metro, Super C and IGA chains will be added.
- With files from The Canadian Press
