Leftover party, banquet food used to feed less fortunate

'Tis the season for office parties and year-end banquets. That means leftover food lots of it in some cases.

All that food doesn't have to be composted or sent to the dump. It can be used to feed those in need.

• CBC Windsor's Sounds of the Season

Ontario's Donation of Food Act and the province's Good Samaritan Act protect those who are willing to donate leftovers and fresh food.

Still, not all charities accept leftovers.

The Unemployed Help Centre accepts food donations but not everything.

Chef Roger Poirier says the rules around donated food are pretty strict.

"We're getting it second hand, so if it's not handled properly to begin with, it's really hard to judge to give it to someone else," the Unemployed Help Centre's chef Roger Poirier said. .

He said while he wouldn't pick up food from a house or office party, he says the system is very user-friendly. The centre does have a procedure in place to collect food from a banquet hall.

"If they have a banquet and there's too much food leftover, they would make sure it gets cooled properly, stored properly; they would label it for us with the date, the temperature and the item," he said. "So when our guys get there, they take the temperature of the fridge, the temperature of the truck and the temperature of the food again, so when it gets here, I know 100 per cent that it's safe to serve."

Street Help in downtown Windsor has a different perspective.

Serving 200 homeless people a day, with no government funding, Christine Wilson-Furlonger of Street Help says any food is welcome.

"We often get food in from banquets, leftovers from weddings, funerals, and other events, gatherings in the workplace and I see no harm in taking that food," she said.

Wednesday, Street Help accepted pastries from a church Christmas party.

"We have our own rule here and it's a very simple rule: if I won't eat it myself, I won't serve it," Christine Wilson-Furlonger said.

Back at the the Unemployed Help Centre, while it has strict guidelines on leftover food, the agency has accepted more than 725,000 kg or 1.6 million pounds of rescued food this year.

"This is food that is otherwise destined for landfills, that a lot of the areas farmers and greenhouse growers are more than happy to provide rather than throw them out," said Mike Tunbull, food rescue manager at the Unemployed Help Centre. "This is beautiful produce that certainly would go to waste if we were unable to rescue that."

CBC's Sounds of the Season event in support of local food banks takes place Friday.

There will be an open house at CBC Windsor at 825 Riverside Dr. W. at the corner of Riverside and Crawford Avenue.
Everyone is invited to drop by throughout the day with food donations and to watch our local programming go to air live.