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)