Student volunteers help to connect local farms with food banks to rescue 40,000 pounds of surplus food

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A group of university student volunteers are rescuing thousands of pounds of surplus food by connecting farms with local food banks.

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Farmlink Project Canada has rescued about 40,000 pounds of food since its inception in May 2021 — rescuing food in Alberta and Ontario.

The project was started in Alberta by team leaders Cindy Zhang and Tom Zhao from Calgary. Zhao said they’ve connected with food banks across the province including Edmonton Food Bank, Calgary Food Bank and Red Deer Food Bank. Zhang said the non-profit was created during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was during COVID that we realized that a lot of farmers were facing a lot of surplus food and we saw how millions of pounds of potatoes were getting landfilled just because of restaurant closures and we noticed that this is a problem,” said Zhang.

“We started interviewing food banks across Alberta and we realized that the demand at food banks was increasing and a lot more people were facing food insecurity, so we wanted to connect these two together.”

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Zhang said they first connected Edmonton’s Food Bank with Swiss Leaf Farms. Food bank executive director Marjorie Bencz told Postmedia Swiss Leaf Farms has since been donating produce to them weekly.

Zhang said if a food bank has its own transportation they would come pick it up and if they don’t have their own transportation, Zhang said they will rent a truck and deliver it themselves. She added they have been doing pickups at least once a week.

The Farmlink Project Canada team is made of 15-20 volunteers working remotely in small teams across Canada, said Zhang. She said the majority of the team is located in Ontario, a few are in B.C. and her and Zhao are in Alberta.

“We’re hoping to expand in the future as we’re still in the process of connecting with more farms and moving more food,” said Zhang.

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The Canadian project started after conversations with Farmlink Project U.S.A., said Zhang, an organization with the same initiative.

Bencz said she thinks because the Edmonton Food Bank has food drives and special events asking for non-perishable food items that the public tends to think the majority of their food is coming from donations made at those specific events and that’s not the case.

“That food is truly appreciated. That food is used to supplement what we’re getting from other opportunities,” said Bencz.

“We pick up food from grocery stores, and suppliers and then we’re really fortunate that we do have some farmers, for example, that donate to us like Swiss Leaf Farms or Farmer Dave … those types of organizations whether it be a farm, an individual or a corporation is a real basis of our food distribution both to our individual clients through our hamper programs, but also to any soup kitchens and shelters and other organizations turning to us.”

ktaniguchi@postmedia.com

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