My Interview With Quest Food Exchange

I recently contacted Quest Food Exchange, so that I could find out more information on the process of food rescue and the challenges they are currently facing. I spoke with Geneva Bokowski, the Community Relations Coordinator at Quest. Below are a few questions and answers that were spoken about in our conversation:

K: Can you tell me about the process of food rescue? For example, what kind of non-marketable food do you collect, and what is the process with the vendors like?

G: We have a list of suppliers and vendors that donate monthly or bi-weekly. From them we collect items such as produce, canned items,  and food that is near expiry, overstocked, or mislabelled. The vendors receive a tax receipt so it’s actually cheaper for them to donate to us rather than throwing the food away. We do the pick ups ourselves so it is easier and more convenient for them.

K: What is the separation process like?

G: We have volunteers that do the separation, and the food gets opened, checked, and even tasted for quality control. The food that is not usable gets seperated for compost, which we send out to other facilities. Ideally though, we would lke have have our own composting garden at Quest.

K: Can you tell me about the low cost grocery store? Is there a screening process?

G: We have a few locations for the grocery store. One is on East Georgia, and we just opened one in Surrey as well. The shoppers need a referral in order to shop at the store, often from The Ministry of Housing, or The Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance. The referral is pretty casual, they need written proof that they are approved and they receive vouchers (which range anywhere between $14-$40) to shop at the store. The food that we sell there is 70% reduced.

K: What does the organizational structure look like at Quest?

G: At East Georgia, we have 5 full-time employees. Altogether (at our 3 locations), we have about 21 full time employees and a broad volunteer base. We get our funding from grants, as we are not government funded.

K: What are some of the current challenges you are facing?

G: Funding is always an issue. We usually have a kitchen where we prepare meals from the food we collect, but right now we cannot operate it because of the lack of funding.

K: What do you hope to see for Quest in the future?

G: We have a 5 year expansion plan, where we want to expand to the Tri-Cities. We also want to have a warehouse in Surrey in order to serve them better. Finally, we have a provincial vision for Quest, so hopefully in the future we can expand further throughout BC.

I really want to thank Geneva for taking her time to answer my questions. After our interview, she forwarded the information of our initiative to Charlene Ponto, the Project Coordinator for SFU’s Local Food Project. Charlene then forwarded the message to various other contacts, including Bonnie Edelstein, SFU’s Food Bank Coordinator, Liesl Jurock, the Student Life Manager, and Loretta Laurin, a member of the SFSS Advocacy Committee. Because of Geneva, our idea may just come into action!

What I’ve Learned: Kelly

In participating in this project, I’ve discovered how many people are willing to give up the fancy office and yearly bonuses in order to bring some light into such growing problem. And it wasn’t as easy as I thought. Even when trying to find solutions ourselves, I learned that there really is a lack of education out there; I myself learned a few- make that a lot of things that I didn’t know about before, especially about the effects of waste and the ease of composting. It really makes me wonder why the government, the media, and the corporations have not done more to expose this problem and try to get the general community to contribute to the solution. Yes, we hear about global warming and the lack of adequate food sources in the third world countries, but do we really hear about the true ways of mitigating this problem?

I’ve learned that waste is everywhere- more than I’ve ever noticed before. I begin to think twice about grabbing extra napkins, using straws in my drinks, and using non-recycable take out containers. I’ve even caught myself throwing recyclable containers away, only to have the guilt eat away at me and as a result, I’ve gone back into the garbage to take them back out.

I’ve learned that there are over 163 items that are compostable, many of which I throw out each and everyday. Laundry lint and fur- who knew? I do now- and rest assured, I will be starting my own backyard compost soon.

Lastly, I’ve discovered just how close we are in getting SFU to participate in novel programs to reduce waste. Audits are already in place for our own composting program, and many seem to really like the idea of food rescue. It’s possible, and it’s hopefully going to be put into action. And in the end, I hope that I can say that I was part of the soltution.

A Solutions Pilot at Renaissance

Let’s dish out the most important details first:

What: Come see our Food Rescue iniative in action! We will be trying to carry out our food rescue solution as a pilot, and seeing first hand what the process entails.

When: Tuesday, July21st, 2009 at 1:00pm

Where: Renaissance Coffee, located at Cornerstone

Who: Everyone! Stop by if you’re on campus, or feel free to stop in just to view the action!

How we got here

The Trashbusters had to consider several things upon choosing the solution pilot location. For example, we had to find a location that had an adequate exposure to people- we need traffic so that people can see what we are trying to do and what problem we are trying to tackle. However, we had to be careful to ensure that this exposure is no too large, as we would not want to distract customers away from the store or disrupt the flow of the business.

Renaissance Coffee is the perfect pilot store- the small size of the store keeps the project simple, allowing the team to focus on the goals, while the location at The Cornerstone guarantees traffic as it is located right by the bus loop. Not only that, but Renaissance also has a first hand experience with resuable dishware, so we may even get a few answers on our other solution (decreasing food packaging).

Sara contacted Parminder of Renaissance and he has agreed to let us carry out our pilot there on Tuesday afternoon. The Trashbusters have been really lucky to have him allow us to do this and we are really excited! We will be making sure that all the customers that enter the store will be aware of our project, and our goals for implementation. After Tuesday we hope to take away some key points and answers, such as the complexities of separating the materials and the resistance of customers, as well as the feasibility of our solution.

We hope to see you-our viewers, fellow bloggers, environmentalists, professors, friends, family, there on Tuesday! We will try to get some footage on video or some photos so that we can update you all on our progress.

Trashbusters’ Next Steps

Over the next two weeks, The Trashbusters will be contacting various people and organizations in order to pilot our solution. Since the scope of our solutions are quite large, The Trashbusters have decided to choose one solution to implement, rather than both solutions.

While implementing reusable dishes would be of great benefit to our social problem, we feel that the market would not be as receptive as we hope to the idea of making such a large shift in operations. When for-profit organizations are involved, there is often a primary focus on the economic bottom line; implementing reusable dishes, while beneficial in the long-term, would have great initial costs, making it less attractive to the chains in the food court.

So in the next few weeks, we will be piloting Part II of our solution: food rescue and composting at SFU. There have been past attempts to try to get composting going at SFU, so we feel that the support is already there. Sustainability is becoming the norm, and we hope that by entering the market at the right time, we will be able to pilot our solution in hopes of it becoming permanent in the future.

Our next efforts will include contacting SFU Facilities, Chartwell’s, Quest Food Exchange, Sustainable SFU, and SFU Food Bank, and various composting companies, in hopes of getting information we need to implement our solution. We will be posting updates on these contacts-be sure to check back to see how The Trashbusters are progressing!

Part II: SFU= Sustaining Food Usefully

This post outlines the details of our second solution, which is to implement at food rescue and composting program.

Food Rescue and Composting Program

While composting is an ideal way to divert food waste from the landfills, Trashbusters’ research has led to the conclusion that this process is complex and vulnerable to contamination, making it less desirable to the market to participate. However, this is beginning to change, as we see more efforts of composting being incorporated into the region. Delta, for example, is one of the municipalities taking part in a pilot program that encourages people to save their yard trimming and food waste. In doing so, yard waste pick up is increasing to a weekly process during peak hours, and now includes the collection of food waste as well.

The Trashbusters want to take this awareness one step further. We want to spread the word about food rescue, and get more people on board with helping various causes with one act. By getting more organizations to contribute to these organizations, Vancouver could increase the 1% figure of food being rescued. We see this as a long term goal, as the transformation of food rescue will take time in order to get the majority on board. In doing so, we will look into applying our solutions at a place where the market is already accepting the idea of sustainability: SFU. The Trashbusters plan to get in touch with the restaurants in operation there (such as Chartwells and those located at the Cornerstone) in order to find out what they do with their food waste at the end of the day. Implementation of food rescue will work as follows:

a)  A designated group would be responsible for collection- they would go to these stores in operation and collect any extra produce, sandwiches, pasta salads, or expired food and bring them to a designated area for sorting. Volunteers for research and action would be sought from SFPIRG’s Action Research Exchange.

b)  The volunteers would sort the food into the appropriate categories. Food that can be preserved will be preserved, and perishable food can be donated can be donated to the SFU’s Food Bank.

 c) With help from SFU’s Sustainable Community Development, food that is expired or non-salvageable would be used for compost. The rich soil developed from the compost can be used for areas around campus.

Concerns: 

How would we find the space for sorting and operations? Are there issues of contamination with the composting? Would the stores in operation be willing to participate? Would our proposed alliances be on board?

In order to successfully implement this program we would have to seek support from various SFU groups and authorities. Because the cost of composting is high, we would have to make sure the stakeholders see the benefits of the program- to make SFU a more sustainbale community. And because SFU already has volunteers that are dedicated to making this, we hope to be able to get many on board to help make rescuing food a reality.

Quest Food Exchange

While I’m sure restaurants and stores try their hardest to incorporate just-in-time inventory, there are many who are always faced with food that they can not sell. This includes general products that have passed its expiry date, produce that is not an acceptable size or that has small bruises, and perishable goods whose packaging was damaged during transport (such as dented cans.) Food that is not acceptable for sale often gets thrown into the trash, resulting in perfectly good food ending up in the landfills. Quest Food Exchange is an organization that aims to rescue food and reduce hunger. With support from various food donors (click here for a list of some of their donors), Quest goes to the participating stores and picks up any food that can be rescued. The food is then taken to the 575 square meter warehouse (which is filled and emptied each day) and sorted by the volunteers. Food that gets brought into the process is:

• canned if it is preservable
• made into hampers
• used to make hot meals
• reclaimed for animal feed and composting
• brought to their low-cost grocery store (recently opened in Surrey, in April 2008)

Quest ensures that everything is put into good use and at the same time helps out various social service and outreach agencies. It’s amazing to see just how much good food gets thrown away. The only downside? As great as the efforts are, Quest is still only capturing 1% of the food being wasted in the region.

(source: www.questoutreach.com)

Waste Management in Switzerland: You Waste, You Pay

According to BBC News, Switzerland is proud of its recycling efforts, as many refuse to throw anything away. Unlike the rest of Europe who only recycle 20-40% of their plastic bottles, Switzerland manages to stay on top with 80%. They have systems in place so that people can recycle with ease, such as bottle banks at every supermarket. Each glass bank has seperate slots for clear, brown, and green bottles, making the process simple and efficient. Other recycling procedures are like those of Vancouver, where materials like paper, cardboard, and garden waste can be put curbside to be collected on a regular basis.

So what makes Switzlerland stand out from the rest?

Well unlike other places, Switzerland actually charges for those who waste. Those who put out trash bags have to put a sticker on it, and each sticker costs at least one Euro. And if they don’t put a sticker on it, it doesn’t get picked up. This encourages people to recycle (which is free!) and gives people an incentive not to waste. Can you imagine people paying to trash in Vancouver? We would make millions….

(Image: www.swissworld.org)

Items commonly mistaken as recyclable

How many of you put milk cartons in the blue bin every week for them to be recycled? For me, we have been doing it for years. Little did I know that the cartons are not actually properly recycled (see the page on “Myths about recycling, Myth #1.) So how many other items are also on this list? Here is a list of items commonly mistaken as recyclable:

• food waste
• coffee or drink cups
• tissue or paper towels
• food wrappers
• yogurt or fruit cups
• broken glass
• waxed cardboard
• paper or styrofoam cups
• plastic cutlery or straws
• take-out containers
• shrink wrap
• soiled or wet paper
• candy or chip bags
• juice or milk cartons
• aerosol cans
• personal products

These items are no luxury items. They are products that we as consumers buy on a regular trip to the grocery store. Think about all the parents who buy juice boxes for their kids to take to school, or the number of bags of chips that are being purchased in vending machines everyday. No wonder we have accumulated so much waste!

(source: http://www.mcmaster.ca/recycle/guidelines/NRlist.htm)

The Story of Stuff

 The Story of Stuff is a presentation conducted byAnnie Leonard about the sources and destinations of our “stuff.” Leonard has spent the last 10 years researching the flow of materials and the problems that have risen throughout the cycle.

Leonard explains that our resources essentially go through five steps: Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption, and Disposal; she calls this order the materials economy. Leonard then goes on to explain each step, elaborating on the people involved, the statistics publically known, and the hidden facts that many do not know. 

Throughout the video Leonard also mentions other social problems that have arisen because of the choices made by the government and large corporations. Our system is in crisis, and it is because that is how we abused it. When a country runs out of resources, it takes them from other countries; in turn, jobs are lost and those who once had possession of those resources are forced to work in factories with low wages and unsafe working conditions. Corporations feed this crisis by distributing products that either break down in six months, or become “out of fashion.” The result of this? Waste, waste and more waste. And what do we do with the waste? Either bury it in the ground, burn it (releasing toxins into the air), or transfer it somewhere else.

At the end of the video Leonard presents many different approaches to deal with our stuff, including the commonly known concept of recycling. While Leonard fully encourages recycling, she states that it is simply not enough because of the number of items that aren’t designed to be recycled. She emphasizes that the best way to deal with the problem is from the start, beginning with “cleaner production, better product design, composting, recycling and using less stuff overall.”

Leonard was able to wrap up the presentation in 20 minutes- pretty amazing considering the complexity of the issue. She uncovers many shocking statistics and information that is often overlooked, and manages to make it interesting and simple. If you want to learn more, don’t wait! Check out the website at www.thestoryofstuff.com.