TORONTO — Loblaw Companies Limited (Loblaw) and Second Harvest, Canada’s largest food rescue organization, announced further plans to eliminate food waste, support communities and expand their 35-year partnership across Canada, with Loblaw’s commitment of $1 million to on-board its banner stores onto Second Harvest’s FoodRescue.ca platform.
“Loblaw has been a supporter of Second Harvest from the very beginning, and we are looking forward to this next exciting phase of our relationship. Together, we’re leading a food rescue revolution,” said Lori Nikkel, CEO of Second Harvest. “The need to recover surplus food and redistribute it to Canadians has never been more crucial, and FoodRescue.ca is the simple, scalable solution to prevent surplus food from becoming lost and wasted.”
Loblaw is heavily invested in reducing their environmental impact through a range of waste reduction and diversion systems, energy efficiencies and community level initiatives. As an early adopter of FoodRescue.ca, Loblaw currently has 156 locations registered on the platform in Ontario and British Columbia. To date, these stores have used the platform to donate enough surplus unsold food to provide over 500,000 meals to their local communities, and in doing so have prevented the release of more than 2,800,000 kg of greenhouse gases.
“Loblaw has committed to closing the gap between hunger and surplus food, with an aim to reduce or divert food waste in its stores,” said Tonya Lagrasta, Senior Director, Corporate Social Responsibility at Loblaw. “We are proud to be deepening our relationship with Second Harvest and help scale FoodRescue.ca into new communities throughout Canada. As Canada’s largest food distributor, our stores are uniquely positioned so that, together, we can make a significant impact.”
First launched in Ontario in 2018, FoodRescue.ca expanded rapidly across Canada in response to COVID-19. Businesses simply register and outline how much and what type of food they have available, and local non-profits receive email or text alerts about new donations in their area. The innovative tool is free to use by both food producers and non-profit organizations available as a mobile app. FoodRescue.ca helps to limit avoidable food waste while enabling businesses to reduce their environmental footprint and provide healthy, nutritious food to people in need.
About Second Harvest
Second Harvest is the largest food rescue organization in Canada and a global thought leader on food recovery. Working across the supply chain – from farm to retail – we capture surplus perishable food before it ends up in landfill negatively impacting our environment our mobile app FoodRescue.ca also connects businesses with surplus food to local charities ensuring good food gets to people. With the global pandemic, Second Harvest is leading the Food Rescue Canadian Alliance (FRCA), bringing together government, industry, indigenous communities and non-profit sector to ensure food reaches the most vulnerable members of our communities, from coast-to-coast-to coast. Learn more at https://secondharvest.ca/.
About Loblaw Companies Limited
Loblaw Companies Limited is the nation’s largest retailer, providing Canadians with grocery, pharmacy, health and beauty, apparel, general merchandise, financial services, and wireless mobile products and services. Loblaw’s purpose – Live Life Well® – promotes the needs and wellbeing of Canadians, who make one billion transactions annually in the company’s stores. With more than 2,400 corporate, franchised and associate-owned locations, Loblaw, its franchisees, and associate-owners employ almost 200,000 full- and part-time employees, making it one of Canada’s largest private sector employers.
