Sources Food Hub
SOURCES FOOD HUB
The Sources Regional Food Hub provides education on food waste reduction, and opportunities for rescuing and redistributing food to our community.
The Hub enables food businesses, farms and residents to rescue unsaleable food and redirect it to address community food insecurity while also reducing the significant greenhouse gas emissions otherwise caused by food waste.
With funding from the Walmart Foundation and United Way of the Lower Mainland, the Hub coordinates three projects:
- Rescuing food from processors and retailers to redistribute to organizations serving marginalized families and individuals in Surrey
- Organizing volunteers to harvest and redistribute fruit and produce from farms and backyards, also known as gleaning
- Offering food waste education to the public and to members of the food business community
Since June 2019, we have rescued and redistributed the equivalent of almost 541,500 meals in Surrey.
That is worth the food dollar value of $1,587,701.81of perfectly good food!
In Canada, about 7.3 million metric tonnes of edible food is wasted each year by producers, food processors, distributors and retailers. The primary work of the Sources Food Hub is to rescue and redistribute this good food that would otherwise go to waste. It maintains an ever-growing network of retail, processor and farm food-donors, whose unsaleable food is redirected to organizations in Surrey. This work addresses two major issues at once; food insecurity in our community and the serious greenhouse gas emissions that result from wasted food.
The Sources Food Hub has developed a handbook to help other new food rescue programs navigate the development stage. Access the handbook for a limited time, here:
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Phone number: 672-968-1479
Email address: foodhub@sourcesbc.ca
Mailing address: #206 – 5529-192 Street Surrey, BC V3S 9R9
COMMUNITY HARVEST PROGRAM
Sometimes good food goes to waste in our community simply because it isn’t harvested – whether in farmers’ fields or on backyard fruit trees. Harvesting this produce is known as gleaning. The Sources Food Hub offers its Community Harvest Gleaning Services through a team of dedicated volunteers. Along with our partner organizations, landowners and volunteers can also keep a share of the fresh, healthy harvest.
To register your garden or other crops, please fill out this form:
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Phone: 778-900-1184
Email: foodhub@sourcesbc.ca
FOOD WASTE EDUCATION
That is why we each have a role to play in addressing the problem of food waste. Food Hub staff are available to attend or host events and to give presentations on the reduction of waste throughout the food system with content customized for audiences ranging from elementary students to food business managers.
Find out more about food waste today through the National Zero Waste Council’s campaign, Love Food Hate Waste
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Phone: 778-900-1184
Email: foodhub@sourcesbc.ca
