BANFF – Banff Food Rescue looks set to get a $20,000 boost to help expand its service.
Currently, the non-profit organization runs the food rescue service out of founder Alanna Pettigrew’s home – but the goal is to expand into a non-residential location with greater storage, a cooler and food handling space.
On Monday (Dec. 3), council agreed to allocate $20,000 a year for the next three years to help with rent; however, the decision isn’t final until the budget is passed later this month.
Officials say that supporting the volunteer-run food rescue group will allow it to collect greater volumes of edible food from businesses, noting the municipality has an overall waste diversion target of 70 per cent by 2028.
Mayor Karen Sorensen voiced strong support for this initiative, saying the efforts of Pettigrew and volunteers have had a tremendous effect on the community.
“The fact is they need space and space costs money,” she said.
“I think in this instance we need to provide cash to this organization in order that they can not only continue the great service they’ve been offering, but also be able to help more and more people.”
Banff Food Rescue provides an opportunity for businesses to send unused edible food items back into the community for people to eat, including food items that are packaged.
Moving into a bigger, centrally located space is expected to lead to a five per cent increase in food and waste diversion from the business sector, which is about 77 tonnes a year.
Town of Banff officials say diversion of food through Banff Food Rescue is a much better option than putting unused food into a food waste bin for composting, or in the garbage bin to be sent to the dump.
Carla Bitz, the Town’s environmental coordinator for resource recovery, said it’s not possible for Banff Food Rescue to accept more food, even though businesses are keen to donate more, if there’s not a larger space with more storage and cooling facility.
“From a social well-being standpoint, diverting edible food to people who need it improves the health and overall well-being of Banff residents,” she said.
“From an environmental standpoint, great quantities of resources go into growing and preparing food; it is most environmentally efficient to use this food to feed people, when the food is still edible.”
Statistics show that from July 2017 to June 2018, 7,673 people have been served by Banff Food Rescue and more than 1,000 volunteers have pitched in to help.
This non-profit group, on average, diverted 2,700 kg of food each month, which is equivalent to the diversion of more than 32 tonnes of edible food each year.
Pettigrew could not be reached for comment by press time.
