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

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A group of volunteer college students is salvaging thousands of pounds of surplus food by connecting farms with local food banks.

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Farmlink Canada project has salvaged about 40,000 pounds of food since its inception in May 2021, salvaging food in Alberta and Ontario.

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

“It was during COVID that we realized that many farmers were dealing with a large amount of food surplus and we saw millions of pounds of potatoes being thrown into landfills just from restaurant closures and we realized that this is a problem. Zhang said.

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

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Zhang said they first connected the Edmonton Food Bank with Swiss leaf farms. The food bank’s executive director, Marjorie Bencz, told Postmedia that Swiss Leaf Farms has been donating products to them on a weekly basis.

Zhang said that if a food bank has its own transport, they will come to pick it up and if they don’t have their own transport, Zhang said they will rent a truck and deliver it themselves. He added that they have been collecting at least once a week.

The Farmlink Canada Project team consists of 15-20 volunteers working remotely in small teams across Canada, Zhang said. She said that most of the team is located in Ontario, some are in BC, and she and Zhao are in Alberta.

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

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The Canadian project started after discussions with Farmlink Project USA, said Zhang, an organization with the same initiative.

Bencz said he thinks that because the Edmonton Food Bank has food drive drives and special events that call for non-perishable food, the public tends to think that most of their food comes from donations made at those specific events and that It is not the case.

“That food is really appreciated. That food is used to supplement what we get from other opportunities, ”said Bencz.

“We collect food from grocery stores and suppliers and then we are very lucky to have some farmers, for example, donate to us like Swiss Leaf Farms or Farmer Dave … those kinds of organizations, be it a farm, an individual. “or a corporation is a real base of our food distribution, both to our individual customers through our basket programs, and to any soup kitchen, shelters and other organizations that turn to us.”

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