Despite the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary’s latest push to upgrade the composting capacity at its Grand Forks facility, the Boundary Community Food Bank is doing its best to divert any food from the landfill in the first place.
Last December, Save on Foods began sending all of its produce and near-sell-by-date perishables to the food bank, resulting in a diversion of more than 15 tonnes of food waste in the two months the program has been operating.
In December, the food bank was able to process, recover and use 4,674 kilograms of food, while a similar quantity was taken by farmers for feed and their own uses. In January, the sum dipped slightly, but still resulted in a total diversion of 7,556 kilograms of perishable food that would up on plates and at farms, instead of simply decomposing in the local landfill.
“The impact of food recovery is huge,” said Boundary Community Food Bank president Mike Wakelin. The organization saw a 30 per cent increase in demand last year, as compared to the year before.
By taking meat that is still good from Save on Foods, but is unable to be sold at the store, the food bank has increased its protein offerings by 400 per cent – from servings of tuna and peanut butter to ground beef and other cuts.
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Jensen.edwards@grandforksgazette.ca
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