Food rescue partners with Maple Leaf

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This article was published 29/06/2024 (583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new partnership with Maple Leaf Foods has not only caused a new shipment of food to fly off the shelves of the Food Rescue Grocery in Brandon — it has also marked a new chapter in the history of the social enterprise.

Earlier this week, the Food Rescue Grocery placed an order with Maple Leaf Foods that will stock the store with protein priced well below the usual sticker price. The partnership — and the shipment — couldn’t come at a better time, when the store was experiencing empty shelves after ties were cut with its previous major supplier.

“Up until this point, we only accepted donations,” Ted Dzogan, the store’s food rescue extraordinaire, told the Sun. “We now understand that in order to have a sustainable model and have constant supply and especially an approach this time, that we may have to make purchases.”

The partnership with Maple Leaf means the store has joined the food production company’s “distressed food” network. Perfectly good food that, for whatever reason — be it overproduction or an error in a customer order — is available, will now be shared with the rescue store.

“Maple Leaf has made this available to us through this program at a rate which we still have it in store for significantly less than people are used to,” Dzogan said, adding the store will now have a supply of proteins like chicken breasts, bacon, smokies and chicken nuggets available.

The first shipment from Maple Leaf arrived on Friday, and before staff could even open the boxes and put the new goods in its refrigerators, people were already lined up past the entrance.

Last month, the social enterprise made an announcement addressing concerns about the lack of food in the store, which they said was a result of its cost recovery model conflicting with the policies of Second Harvest, a large food rescue organization based in Toronto that connected the store with a network of food suppliers.

Dzogan said after discussions with Second Harvest, the store had to face a decision about whether it would operate as a food bank, which requires food to be free in order to keep the relationship with the other food rescue organization, or continue operating on its existing model of accepting excess food from retail and warehouse distributors and selling that “rescued” food to community members at a discounted price to help cover costs of bringing it into the community.

Sticking to its roots meant the store would have to branch out on its own, without the support of a larger organization’s supply network. But Dzogan emphasized that models for food rescue developed in larger urban centres do not always translate to smaller cities in rural areas like Brandon, which does not have access to the same kind of resources and faces higher costs associated with transporting the rescued food to the store.

“We would rather meet the needs of our community and be alone, than have a friend network and watch people in our communities go hungry,” he said, adding the store also does not want to compete with food banks for the limited funds that are available to them.

The Sun sent multiple interview requests to Second Harvest but did not receive a response.

After the decision to stick with its own model and work to develop its own partnerships with suppliers was made, the store got to work to ensure it could keep food on the shelves for customers. That’s when Brandon East MLA Glen Simard, the provincial minister of sport, culture, heritage and tourism, was able to offer help.

Simard’s executive assistant, Ray Berthelette, passed a contact he had at Maple Leaf to Dzogan. Shortly after, a new partnership was forged, and an order of food was placed on Monday.

“Our office played the connector role,” Simard told the Sun in an interview on Friday, adding that he didn’t take part in any part of the agreement, other than to put the local grocery store in touch with a contact at Maple Leaf.

The Sun reached out to Maple Leaf Foods for comment but did not receive a response.

Simard said that after Mike Moroz, an NDP MLA for River Heights, introduced a private member’s resolution on food rescue in the legislature in April, his office, along with Moroz, toured the store’s new location in The Town Centre.

“People in Brandon from all stripes want lower food prices, and that’s something that can be offered to everyone (and) I think that is really important,” Simard said. “The food rescue is trying to survive (and) is trying to make their way. And we want to support any organization that wants to provide low-cost options to people.”

Meanwhile, Dzogan said the store will continue to work toward building new partnerships to keep the shelves stocked and is currently working on an agreement to secure a supply of dairy products.

“If there’s a way (that) we can start a conversation and build a relationship that keeps food out of landfills and helps people with their food security problems, then we’re up for that conversation and we can try and make it work,” Dzogan said. “This is not about us meeting our preconceived philosophical beliefs. This is about us solving problems.”

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

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