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.

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)