Six thousand meals went on people’s plates rather than to the landfill this year thanks to the efforts of just one volunteer, Janet McDonnell, and a food-recovery app she uses.
With Vancouver Food Runners, she made a total of 46 “food rescues” – that’s what the app calls them – in 2023, saving 7,761 pounds of food. And that’s without any ongoing time commitment. All she had to do was download and register with the app, select a delivery, pick it up and then drop it off with an organization that distributes the food.
At many of her stops, people there are happy to help McDonnell pack the food in and out of her car.
Now, the volunteer – who lives in North Vancouver – is imploring more volunteers, but also businesses, to sign up for the service. Her request comes amid a call from the food recovery charity to help expand its operations across the Metro Vancouver region.
Facing increasing pressures on cost of living, nearly 20 per cent of B.C. households lack reliable access to nutritious food, according to the charity. In response, Vancouver Food Runners has scaled up its operations, expanding to the North Shore, Richmond, Burnaby, Surrey and Delta.
The program is high-impact volunteering, the organization says. Just one hour of volunteer work results in around $570 of food donated, which is roughly 150 community meals. Most food pickups are less than 15 minutes from the drop-off location, and volunteering is flexible – from one-time rescues, to regular weekly routes, to food rescues that can be done by bike.
There are clear benefits for participating companies too, said McDonnell, who has a background in business management.
“It’s a sustainability accomplishment for the business…. The app makes it very easy. It’s free for the business,” she said, adding that provincial law protects companies from any potential liability while donating food in good faith.
Knowing that edible food isn’t being tossed in the bin is a good feeling for staff as well, McDonnell added: “For team building and community connections, feeling that they’re doing something worthwhile for the community.”
Since she joined the charity a year and a half ago, McDonnell said she’s been impressed at how efficient and low-cost the Food Runners model is.
“A lot of organizations pick up food in trucks, take them to a warehouse, then deliver them,” she explained. “But because of the app and because of the volunteer food runners who use our own vehicles, we pick it up directly from the business and deliver directly to the nonprofit organization.”
Notifying people at her pick-up and drop-off locations is as simple as pressing a button on the app, McDonnell said. “And if I’m going away, I just open the app and I click on the dates that I can’t do my weekly run. And that’s it. I don’t have to feel bad. I don’t have to organize somebody else [to make the delivery].”
Nearly $8.7 million of food saved since launch in 2020
Thanks in part to a donation from West Vancouver Foundation, Vancouver Food Runners expanded onto the North Shore this year.
But so far, only five businesses have signed up with the service: Real Canadian Superstore, Dashmart, Starbucks Northwoods Village, M&M Meat Market and Walmart.
“They have a lot of volunteers on the North Shore, but that not very many businesses donating food here,” McDonnell said. As a result, most of her food rescues are in Vancouver.
“There would be more availability for food rescues on the North Shore if there were more businesses donating,” she said.
This year, 214 food rescues have been made on the North Shore, for a total of 33,137 pounds of food delivered. The charity estimates that to be around $106,369 worth of food.
Many of those deliveries go to six local nonprofit partners: Family Services of the North Shore, Harvest Project, Capilano Students Union, North Shore Women’s Centre, North Shore Neighbourhood House, and Norgate Xwemelch’stn Community School.
Since launching in March 2020, Vancouver Food Runners has delivered 2.7 million total pounds of food (2.3 million equivalent meals) for a dollar value of nearly $8.7 million. Meanwhile, its 2,800 volunteers registered on the app and 162 active food business partners have diverted 5.5 million pounds of CO2 equivalent from the environment, according to the charity.
“As Canadians we throw away a huge amount of garbage, which is just criminal, and I know I’m guilty of that myself,” McDonnell said. “But in this case, we’re taking some of that food that would have been thrown out and giving it to people in need.”
“You can do it on your way home from work,” she said.
For more information on how to volunteer or donate food, visit the Vancouver Food Runners website.
