Vancouver Foundation

To learn more about the Food Rescue project visit mustardseed.ca/food-rescue. To support innovative community projects like this, call Calvin in Donor Services at 604.629.5357 or visit vancouverfoundation.ca/give. 2 0 1 7 I V a n c o u v e r F o u n d a t i o n l p a g e 1 1 EVERY MONTH, Greater Victoria grocery stores remove thousands of kilograms of fruit, vegetables and dairy products from their shelves. It hasn't yet passed "best before" dates, but due to the store's stock rotation requirements and consumer behaviour, this quality edible food must be discarded. Now, instead of going into the waste stream, the food is brought to the Mustard Seed Street Church's Food Security Distribution Centre in Esquimalt, where three employees and up to 20 volunteers glean, clean and package it, six days a week. It's then distributed to more than 25 agencies involved in providing emergency food, as well as to underserved populations such as vulnerable seniors, students and Indigenous communities throughout the Capital Regional District. e Food Rescue's healthy produce and dairy products are manna from grocery store heaven compared to the typical packaged, processed items that fill food hampers. e Food Rescue Project was founded in mid-2015 when the church joined with the Food Share Network – composed of more than 40 non-profit agencies, grocer rifty Foods, Rotary Clubs of Greater Victoria, the Victoria Foundation and other groups – to raise funds for long-term solutions to hunger and poverty. e church was already distributing food hampers to families in need, but with the goal of increasing those efforts, the group secured a 13,500-sq.-ft. facility where it could accept and organize donations of perishable foods. e church now serves as operational lead of the Food Rescue Project. "e key to this has been having a hub," says Janine Boice, the Mustard Seed's Director of Development. "With the new warehouse, we can increase capacity." When the new space opened in March 2017, it was thought 30 per cent of the perishable items would be thrown out. Amazingly, only about five per cent is composted. Contrary to public perception, it's not mushy bananas or stale yogurt that is taken off store shelves. "e boxes of food going out look like you've just shopped," says Boice. "e other day we got 100 pounds of cherries. We even got a pallet of organic grapes." By the summer of 2017, the Mustard Seed's 5,000 food bank users as well as thousands more in the community were receiving the produce and dairy items each month, either by collecting hampers or attending meal programs. But as the Victoria Foundation's 2014 Vital Signs report found, approximately 50,000 people in the Capital Region experience some degree of food insecurity. Members of the Food Rescue Project were determined to do more. The Victoria founders of the Food Rescue Project have fed thousands and saved truckloads of produce and milk from compost. Now they have a bigger vision By shannon haMeLin | Photo niK west Now they want to expand the number of people the project reaches, but also offer more than emergency food. With a $50,000 grant from Vancouver Foundation, the Food Rescue Project is building a heavy-duty kitchen at the Food Security Distribution Centre and opening a unique grocery store at the Mustard Seed's headquarters in downtown Victoria. "If people are properly nourished, they can take on life's challenges in a new way," Boice says. "It's part of the Mustard Seed's continuum of care." At the 700-sq.-ft. kitchen, community members will have the opportunity to learn how to prepare products like pickles and jams. e space will also be offered for rent to local companies and non-profit agencies on a sliding scale. e Mustard Seed Street Church will develop retail food products that can be sold at farmers' markets and grocery stores to offset some of the costs of operating the Food Security Distribution Centre. ese products will be developed through collaboration with e Island Chefs Collaborative, which has a mandate to improve food security, preserve farmland and develop local food systems. "is is an amazing opportunity to increase regional food security," says Brenda Bolton, coordinator of the Food Share Network. "e Mustard Seed will be able to produce value-added products using locally sourced, seasonal food." As well, at the kitchen and warehouse, people will receive training in areas such as Food Safe certification or driving a forklift. Dignity Market, opening at the end of 2017, will allow food bank users to choose the goods they want, instead of being given products they may not use. People will be partnered with a shopping buddy who will help them learn more about food. "e Vancouver Foundation grant is enabling us to engage, for transformation, with the people coming for food services," says Mustard Seed Executive Director Bruce Curtiss. "We're not just meeting their food needs but we're addressing their future life, helping people move out of dependency to a place of non-dependency." e kitchen and the market, Boice explains, have new dimensions that expand the mission of the Food Rescue Project. "It's learning to cook, food literacy, job training – but we're also restoring dignity. People know they matter."

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