Food rescue in the Lower Mainland
If you’re like me, maybe you walk by the homeless with a bit of a knot in your stomach, not sure how to help. One thing you could do is give your time or resources to Quest Outreach Society.
Quest rescues food from being sent to the landfills and redistributes it to those in need. They rescue 236 tonnes of food every month to serve over 45,000 people. All this rescued food translates to a reduction of nearly 270 metric tonnes of co2 per month that would have been produced if it were sent to the landfill.
Processing that much food takes a lot of work, space, and equipment. Here’s their current wishlist. They will give tax receipts for new or used items.
- commercial kitchen grade vegetable peeler/slicer
- convection oven
- commercial coffee grinder
- hand-pump pallet jack
- cardboard bailer
- bug zapper lights
- 20′ ladder
- 3-tonne trucks (c’mon, I know you have a spare one kicking around!)
- racking for their cooler
- bread racking and storage shelf
- digital camera
- sturdy & powerful canister vacuum
- projector
- software: Adobe CS
- Windows NT Server
- color laser printer
And of course, they take food donations! You can call them at (604) 602-0186 or e-mail questos@telus.net.
Posted: March 27th, 2006 under Activism.
Comments: 2
Comments
At first that idea struck me as a little gross, but I guess it works well enough: feed people who can’t afford to feed themselves on the viable food that our (plump) society idly throws away, keeping them fed whilst keeping landfill sites more empty and fewer emmissions from leaking into our air.
Not a bad deal.
Comment from Reay at 5:19 am, May 1, 2006
I think they rescue a lot of ‘overstock’ perishables and the like. I know they dry vegetables for instance.
When my partner worked at the landfill he saw TRUCKLOADS of the most useful things being thrown out. Flats of gorgeous hot house peppers for instance. Perfectly viable fresh food. Disgusting.
Then there was the camping gear thrown out by MEC which some lower income families or non-profit groups would have taken in a moment. I feel a rant coming on…
Comment from Tzaddi at 8:59 am, May 2, 2006
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