Food Stash Foundation

From donating surplus food to volunteering hands-on, Whole Foods Market Canada is leading by example! 💚🥦🌍 This week, their Burnaby team joined us at Food Stash to sort and pack the very food they helped us rescue, ensuring it reaches those who need it most. Their support is a powerful reminder of how businesses can play a direct role in reducing food waste and strengthening community food access. Is your company looking for a meaningful way to give back? Partner with us to organize a team volunteer day—let’s make an impact together! #FoodRescue #CorporateVolunteering #Sustainability #CommunityImpact #FoodStashFoundation

Food waste and hunger go hand in hand. But what if we could solve both at the same time? Carla Pellegrini and her team at Food Stash Foundation are doing just that in Vancouver. They rescue surplus food from grocery stores and get it to people who need it - while ensuring dignity and choice. After 15 years in nonprofits, Carla has seen what works and what doesn’t. In this episode, she shares the lessons that can help drive real changes. • How they've rescued 270,000 lbs of food this year alone • Why community is key in fighting food insecurity • Her tips for nonprofit leaders to build key partnerships Listen to the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gViQTPbU Drop a comment below - we'd love to hear your thoughts!

March is Nutrition Month. For us at Food Stash we emphasize rescuing and redistributing nutritious and perishable food items like vegetables and fruits. Not surprisingly, one of the most wasted categories of food is produce. It's also one of the most important parts of a nutritious diet, and most Canadians don't get enough fruits and vegetables. This is the feedback we've gotten from our home delivery box members, many of whom are dealing with chronic illnesses that require nutritious foods that they would struggle to afford or access without assistance. Food Stash started as a response to the overwhelming amount of unnecessary food waste in Vancouver, but then grew to prioritize nutritious options that fit members' needs. #nutritionmonth

Our Executive Director, Carla, just took the stage to share a fast-paced, 20x20 (20 images x 20 seconds) talk about food, waste, and the everyday choices that make a difference at PechaKucha Night Vancouver. From her middle-child beginnings to working in agricultural warehouses in Kenya, to discovering an overwhelming amount of wasted food —Carla’s journey has shaped how she values food and fights against food waste every day. She explored why we waste so much food (hello, weirdly strict beauty standards for produce and misleading date labels) and what we can all do about it (trust your senses, plan your meals, and embrace the odd-looking carrot!). The audience was enthusiastic, sharing laughter throughout the event with other amazing speakers, such as Ash MacLeod from A Better Life Foundation. This evening focused on food and emphasized a common theme about the power of food as a connection point among various communities. A huge thank you to PechaKucha Night Vancouver for the opportunity to bring food waste into the spotlight. If you attended, tell us—what stuck with you the most?

On Friday (some) of our team spent the day at Stanley Park Nature House on Lost Lagoon for our second annual team retreat. It was an amazing day where we got the chance to recap what we learned in 2024, role-play and brainstorm difficult scenarios, set goals for 2025 and most importantly connect as a team. One of the main changes we made this year was setting aside break times that included a creative activity. This year we completed a zero-waste egg mobile that will hang in our warehouse - serving as a reminder of our retreat but also to help create a welcoming space for our community. It wouldn't have been a food stash retreat without some rescued food, thanks to Rachel one of our drivers who made a delicious breakfast with rescued ingredients. An incredible day of team building! 

All three of our trucks are refrigerated. Food safety is a priority for us, and most of the food we rescue (like fruits, veggies, and dairy) is perishable. We understand the importance of maintaining a cold chain so that the food we're rescuing stays as fresh as possible. By maintaining the cold temperatures we can keep meat frozen and prevent produce from going wilted. We want to be delivering quality food to our community partners and members and that starts right from the time this food is being picked up. Thanks to Volta Air for supplying our refrigeration units, which are powered by solar and battery. #solarpower #batterypower #foodsafety

At the end of 2024, we began using our compost to feed the chickens. This partnership was developed with local farmer Chris as a way to give what we would consider compost a last chance to get eaten. When we examine the Food Waste Scale developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the most preferred option is to prevent food waste by producing only what we need, buying less, and managing what we already have. The second most preferred option is donating food to charity, which is something we at Food Stash are quite familiar with. The third best option for extra food is to either feed animals or to leave it unharvested. Therefore, when we were presented with the opportunity to feed chickens instead of composting some of our rescued food that is not suitable for humans, we were thrilled. This has been an opportunity to prevent more food from being wasted in new and creative ways.  

During the holiday season, we always see an influx of food to redistribute. Potential reasons why this could be the case were outlined by our operations manager Enrik Gagnon in a previous post. The question remains, what do we do with this influx of extra food? We pack our weekly food boxes to the brim! The contents of the boxes vary based on supply but during the holiday season, these boxes are overflowing. During our Rescued Food Market, we had unlimited items like apples or baked goods, hoping our members would take as much as they like and maybe even a couple for their neighbours. The way we redistribute most of the food we rescue, not just during the holiday season, is through our Community Partners. In December of 2024, we delivered to 39 charity partners and during this influx of food, we even expanded our network and delivered food to partners of partners, organizations on our waitlists, and ad-hoc partners often located outside the Greater Vancouver area. All this to say it takes a village to rescue, redirect and feed our community any day of the week but especially during the holiday season. #foodrescue #foodwaste #foodaccess #foodstash

We saw a 47% increase in food donated in December vs. November, and so we asked ourselves this question - why is there so much more food to be rescued over the holidays? Our operations manager Enrik Gagnon had these insights to share. There is a surplus of food during the holidays for a couple of major reasons, some within and some outside the control of grocery stores. First, there is the statutory holidays that force stores to close down for 1 or more consecutive days, and this means grocery stores pull items with best-before dates that are within those days and (hopefully!) donate them. Second, stores base their inventory order on last year's forecast data and sales may not play out the exact same way they did in years prior - this can lead to surplus. Some stores often get holiday special promotions and purchase discounts for bulk seasonal items - think gingerbread houses or egg nog. When purchasing such large quantities, it may be harder to sell everything before the best-before date. Lastly, as a food rescue and food access charity that stays open during the holidays while others may need to close, we help out our food rescue network by recovering food from their food donors, and giving out food while other food programs may be closed. (And our partners kindly cover for us if we close down for a week in August.) Do you want to hear about what we do with all this extra food? #food #community #foodwaste #foodaccess

If you're part of or support a nonprofit organization, you may be feeling grateful to have made it through another end-of-year fundraising season - we sure are and so we wanted to share some reflections from our Development Manager Stephanie Shulhan. It can be an especially overwhelming time - lots of folks may be harder to reach as they prepare for vacations, end-of-year financials may be wrapping up, and community programs are in extremely high demand. In the nonprofit world, there are usually a lot of surprise opportunities and challenges that need to be handled as they happen, no matter how much planning you've done ahead of time! Despite all these demands on time and attention, it's still widely considered the best time to fundraise. In many cherished traditions, the time around the December solstice is a time to give back. People associate the holidays with the 'season of giving', and they may have been saving up to make a year-end donation in exchange for a tax receipt. (This year's deadline to get a tax receipt for 2024 is a bit different of course - extended to February 28th) No matter how you're feeling now that it's January, take some time to celebrate, feel gratitude for your community, and remember to pace yourself - this work is important year-round, even if it sometimes feels like it's all about the finish line! #reflections #fundraising