Wood Buffalo food bank gets donation boost from food diversion program

The Wood Buffalo Food Bank Associationpicked up boxes of food from Save-on-Foods today andthere was no bill at the end of the trip.

The food bank has partnered with the grocery chain and Loop Resource for a new food waste diversion program.

The Loop program works with grocery stores to take food that would be thrown in the trash, because of damaged packaging or nearing expiration dates, and donate it to local food banks or farmers.

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On Tuesday, the Wood Buffalo Food Bank picked up its first boxes of rescued food at the downtown Save-on-Foods.

Colin Samson, warehouse manager for the Wood Buffalo Food Bank, has been working on getting the program in Fort McMurray for several years, but there were issues like the pandemic and the 2020 flood that delayed the project.

"It's something we've been wanting to do for a long time and to see it finally happen is an amazing feeling," Samson said.

"I don't want to see any food going towards the landfill."

Samson said the programwon't replace the food in the average food baskets, but it will supplement and offer some items that are usually not included because of price.

"There's just going to be things in there that we can't afford to give," said Samson. "In the one we just loaded up, I noticed there was a bunch of cheese in there."

The food bank feeds about 160 families a week.

Cathy Weiss, store manager for the downtown Save-on-Foods, said the program will help reduce waste.

"It would normally just go down the compactor and not used for anything else," said Weiss.

Every day workers at the store go through and pull dated products from the shelves.

"We can salvage what we can now and help families in need," Weiss said.

She estimates there's about a pallet or two of product every day that they'll be able to save.

The Loop program will be run through the three Save-on-Foods in Fort McMurray.

Paul Eckersley, store manager for Save-on-Foods in Thickwood, said he's been part of the program before when he worked in B.C., and it diverts about 90 per cent of the food waste.

"The amount of food we throw out as a company was staggering and now seeing what Loop has changed that to is quite remarkable," said Eckersley.

"In retail a lot of the food, there's nothing wrong with it, it could be a packaging issue and it's not good enough to sell, but it's definitely good enough to eat," said Eckersley.

Jaime White, new project director at Loop, said that food that isn't good enough for human consumption is then given to farmers to feed their livestock. Some of the meat will be given to sled dogs or farm dogs.

White said there are 11 farmers in the Wood Buffalo area that will be able to get food from the program for their animals. All of the farmers are hobby farmers and backyard producers.

White said that the addition of the Loop program to Fort McMurray means that every Save-on-Foods west of Manitoba is participating in a food diversion program.