Did you every wonder what happens to all the left over food at your events and conferences? Well, some of it goes to the hotel staff cafeteria, but a large amount is thrown out. With over 800,000 people in Canada visiting food banks each month (40% are children), wouldn't you like to know that this food is used to help feed the hungry in your community?

The Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society who helps feed up to 25,000 people each week in Vancouver, New Westminster, Burnaby and the North Shore. It has a program that addresses this issue. It is a program called "Food Runners".

Food Runners is a prepared and perishable food recovery program. Using refrigerated vans, perishable food is picked up from hotels, caterers, cafeterias, 7-11's and bakeries. The food is then taken directly to food providing agencies, such as women's shelters, AIDS hospices, youth and adult recovery programs. Food Runners rescues over 700,000 lbs. of food annually. Last year, the program provided 1.5 million meals and snacks to almost 30 agencies.

In April 1997, the BC Provincial Government unanimously passed Bill 10, the "Food Donor Encouragement Act". The act is intended to protect donors from liability as they act in good faith to donate surplus perishable food, while ensuring recipients' rights are protected. The act encourages organizations to made donations of perishable food and provides a valuable source of nutrition to our recipients.

Food Runners and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority have worked together to develop food selection, storage and transportation guidelines for all donors and recipient agencies. All staff directly involved in routing or handling food has completed a "Food Safe" course, and donor and recipient agencies have an appointed staff contact with "Food Safe" certification.

The Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society is not the only community with this type of program. Toronto, Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna and Halifax have similar programs. To find out the name of the food bank in your area, visit www.cafb-acba.ca.

How Meeting Planners can help fight hunger in their communities

_ When signing a contract with a facility or caterer, state that you want all left over food be given to an agency in your area.
_ If there is not a "Food Runner" type program in the area of your event, contact the food bank in the area and they will give you a food-providing agency that will pick up the food.
_ Food that has been put out in a buffet is not acceptable to be picked up. However, there is a solution to this: Have the hotel use smaller bins and only put out half of the food and refill when needed. This way unused portions of food will be left over in the kitchen and then it can be donated.

Most chefs in hotels order just enough, but what they don't realize is that what seems like small amount of leftovers can be stretched by agencies to help feed 200 people. The people who man the kitchens of these agencies are extremely creative and even a small amount of soup can be made into healthy, filling stews.

Some Disturbing Canadian Information

Here are some facts from Hunger Count 2004 issued by the Canadian Association of Food Banks:

_ Number of people using food banks in one month of 2004 was 841,640 (population of Nova Scotia is 936,000)
_ Increase in use since 2003: 8.5%; since 1997: 26.6%; since 1989: 122.7%
_ Highest provincial per capita food bank use: Newfoundland at 5.67%
_ Highest provincial food bank use: Ontario at 38%
_ Number of meals served in one month: 2.72 million
_ Full-time equivalent jobs provided by volunteers in one month: 1,685
_ Percentage of food bank users with jobs: 13.3%
_ Percentage of food bank users who are children: 39.75% (317,242)

This is just a few of the alarming statistics from 2004 Hunger Count. To read the entire report, you can visit www.cafb-acba.ca.

Thousands of pounds of food are going to landfill each year. Ensuring that leftover food from your events help feed the hungry in your community is not the only benefit, it is also a large environmental plus.

If you would like more information about this program in BC, please feel free to contact me at development@foodbank.bc.ca.

Please visit the website: Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST HUNGER IN YOUR COMMUNITY!

Arlene Kravitz, cmp
Director of Communications - The Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society
VP of Communications - Meeting Professionals International - BC Chapter

"This article was originally printed in the October, 2005 issue of The Planner magazine."

Last modified on: 2005-12-05 01:28:22