Achi news desk-
A New Brunswick community food center has launched a food security model it believes can help get more healthy food on Canadians’ tables by reducing food waste and turning a profit.
The philosophy of Station 8 Community Food Hub is that people can squeeze as much as they can out of the food supply.
The social enterprise in a small town in Dorchester, NB aims for zero food waste in its efforts to feed people in need.
“If we have a lot of grapes, oranges, anything that has an abundance, we juice it. Nothing goes to waste,” said volunteer Moira O’Donnell, as she was fed clementines in a juicer in the social enterprise’s new community kitchen.
Food donations left for the grocery store from a refrigerator full of meat and produce are distributed free to anyone in the community struggling to put healthy food on the table, said Wendy Keats, director of the community food center.
“People can’t afford more healthy fruits and vegetables and proteins,” Keats said.
Seniors, families and students can fill their grocery bags in the community refrigerator with no money changing hands. Among the users of the refrigerator is Abigail Pond, who works at the non-profit as an intern.
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“Even as a student, sometimes I have a hard time even buying groceries, so even training here was a plus for me as well,” Pond said.
To keep the healthy donations flowing out the door, the nonprofit had to start running more like a business than a charity.
“We want zero food waste,” Keats said.
She said they turn any food scraps that might otherwise be thrown away into juices and food and sell it at their newly opened community cafe.
“We can process this food, which would otherwise be wasted, and turn it into food that people can consume,” said Keats, who said all profits go toward expenses and the community refrigerator program.
It’s a model that Keats believes should be followed in communities across the country. Treating food insecurity as a non-profit social enterprise, she said, is sustainable in the longer term compared to charities that struggle to access public and government funding and donations.
“We also do teaching kitchens so that’s another way we use our food and we get people to try new things,” she said.
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