Meet Vancouver Food Runners
/Vancouver Food Runners’ mission is to respond to the unfortunate disconnect between the fact that over 40% of all food produced is wasted or lost while 1 in 9 in BC are food insecure. Using technology, civic engagement, and partnerships, Vancouver Food Runners re-distributes surplus retail food to those with food insecurity around the city.
Tell us about yourself
My name is Chloe and I grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I moved to Vancouver in 2012 to attend University and fell in love with the city. I have predominately been in British Columbia ever since, but I still thoroughly enjoy visiting my family and friends in the prairies.
In 2019, I moved to Victoria, BC for a job opportunity with the YM-YWCA of Vancouver Island. Working with the ‘Y’ was an incredible experience; it was here that I really began to understand the importance of building strong communities and creating supportive social networks. Although I loved my position with the YM-YWCA, I am definitely a ‘city person’ and I did miss being in Vancouver with my wonderful group of friends. When I found out about Vancouver Food Runners, I knew this was the perfect opportunity to return to the city and continue building my career with an organization that aligned with my values and interests.
What is Vancouver Food Runners?
Vancouver Food Runners (VFR) is a non-profit organization that works to reduce food waste by bringing surplus food to our various community partners. These community partners are working to support residents of our city who are experiencing food insecurity. With the help of the Vancouver Food Runners app (powered by Food Rescue Hero), our incredible team of volunteers is able to rescue excess food from restaurants, cafés, and other suppliers and deliver it to those in need.
Vancouver Food Runners is different from traditional food recovery organizations in that we do not rely on trucks or storage facilities. Rather, our innovative Food Rescue Hero app is an end-to-end system that matches food donors and non-profit beneficiaries by mobilizing a community of volunteers to efficiently and cost-effectively transport food between locations. By re-directing food that would have otherwise been disposed of, we have prevented over 249,000 lbs od CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis in March, the team of over 1200 volunteer food drivers has been able to collect and distribute more than 575,000 pounds of food (that's 479,000 meals!) to our 65 community partners.
What inspired Vancouver Food Runners?
Our founder, Tristan Jagger, is a mother of 4 children. When she found out that 1 in 6 children in British Columbia live in a household that experiences food insecurity, she wanted to begin tackling this issue in Vancouver. She sought out to find a simple way that she could use technology to help recover surplus food around the city and re-direct it to those in need.
What do volunteers typically do?
Volunteering with Vancouver Food Runners is a super easy and fun way to give back to your community! All you have to do is download our app, and you will get notifications when we need a volunteer to bring food from a donor to one of our non-profit partners. If you have a busy schedule, it’s a great way to volunteer because you do not need to commit a lot of time, and you can claim any food rescue that works for you. The app is user-friendly and directs you right to donor and the recipient using mapping software. It also gives you the option to rate the rescue and give us any feedback that would help make the process smoother.
Who are your food partners?
We are fortunate to work with 135 partners throughout the city. These partners are restaurants, cafes, caterers, grocery stores, wholesalers, and other food suppliers. We collect surplus food from many of them on a weekly basis, and we even collect from some of them multiple times per week. Additionally, our program is super flexible so if a business has extra food on any given day, they can give us a call and we can usually have it collected within a few hours.
What has been the most interesting thing you have learnt from working with Vancouver Food Runners?
One shocking thing was definitely the level of commitment and dedication that our volunteers have shown. We have many volunteers that do multiple runs per day, and many who have promoted our program amongst their own communities, consequently growing the VFR network.
Unfortunately, the other shocking element has been gaining a more thorough understanding of the amount of people throughout Vancouver who are experiencing food insecurity. I look forward to being a part of the continued work that VFR does to advocate for food justice and food sovereignty in our province.
How has the pandemic impacted the organization?
Shortly after Vancouver Food Runners launched, the March 2020 lockdown went into effect, meaning that many restaurants had to shut down. Everyone worked tirelessly to recover an incredible amount of food that was not going to be used and redistribute it to our community partners across the city.
There was a concern that people would not want to volunteer during that period, however, VFR saw the opposite outcome. People of all ages put on their PPE, and did hundreds of contactless food rescues throughout every stage of the pandemic.
Now that restaurants and other food suppliers are open again, we are excited to see that businesses are still putting in the effort to donate their excess food and help fight hunger.
How has the pandemic impacted the vulnerable in the community you serve?
According to a recent report from Community Food Centres Canada, the pandemic has increased food insecurity throughout the country by 39%. They have reported that 1 in 7 people in Canada are now experiencing food insecurity; with indigenous people, racialized people, and immigrants experiencing disproportionate rates. We currently partner with 65 non-profit organizations in Vancouver that work with food insecure populations. We strategically target marginalized communities and areas of the city that are underserved. By the end of 2021, we aim to be regularly working with 100 community partners across the city of Vancouver. Given the challenges of COVID-19, we also want to on-board more low-income senior’s residences. The vulnerability of this population and their need for greater social distancing makes accessing food more difficult for this community.
What are the goals of Vancouver Food Runner for 2021?
Our target is to have 200 food donor partners regularly participating in our food recovery program by the end of 2021 (e.g. restaurants, cafes, bakeries, catering businesses, farms, specialty food shops, small-scale grocery stores, school campuses, produce distributors). This winter, we will commence a multi-pronged food donor recruitment initiative through email, mail outs, phones calls, site visits, and media. As mentioned above, we aim to partner with 100 non-profit organizations by the end of 2021, with a particular focus on underserved populations.
Our goal for 2021 is to collect and distribute 400,000 pounds of food, which is equivalent to 333,333 meals. To accomplish this, we aim to have 1500 individuals download our app by the end of the year!
How can I help?
A super easy way to support Vancouver Food Runners is to sign up to be a volunteer driver! Another easy way is to like, share, and re-post our social media content. Additionally, if you know of anyone who is connected to the food industry in Vancouver, you can let them know about our program and see if they would be interested in participating.
Finally, if your team at your office or business is interested in supporting us, you could spend a couple hours as a company doing food rescues on any day that works for you.
Vancouver Food Runners are in need of additional volunteer drivers. If you would like to help, download their app and receive notifications when food rescues become available.
Please see here for more information: VANCOUVER FOOD RUNNERS and check out the team on Instagram @vancouver_food_runners.
Blog post by Martha Fallon
Martha is a Social Media Coordinator for YWiB Vancouver. Martha hails from Ireland and is a keen traveler (when safe to do so) who enjoys exploring the vast landscapes of Canada.