This B.C. farm fights food waste. It’s at risk of shutting down amid rising costs, says owner | CBC News
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A Metro Vancouver social enterprise combating hunger and food waste is seeking community support to stay open as rising costs threaten to shutter its operations.
Langley-based ReFeed Farm partners with grocery stores, food retailers, manufacturers and restaurants to rescue food headed for the landfill.
Founder Stuart Lilley says the farm’s circular model meant it used all 11 million pounds of discarded food it rescued last year, sending one million pounds to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank and saving an estimated 10 million pounds of carbon emissions.
“We support food banks, we support the food industry and yeah, the demands are there, but the resources to be able to sustain it, aren’t,” Lilley told CBC News on Saturday.
He says food that isn’t given to food banks or sold at low cost are turned into animal feed and soil enrichment products.
Last year, Langley’s ReFeed Farm sorted 11 million pounds of food bound for landfills to give to food banks and local farmers, says owner Stuart Lilley. As CBC’s Charis Hogg reports, Lilley is now asking for the community’s help to keep the operation going amid rising costs.
But ReFeed is on the verge of going under, Lilley said, after a foreign investor pulled funding due to financial pressures earlier this year.
He was also recently informed the company’s monthly rent will rise to $20,000 — up from $17,000 — in January.
While he looks for new investors, a crowd-funding campaign is trying to raise $20,000 to help pay current staff and the rent.
Lilley says the company invested in its profit-driving soil enhancements operations, in the hopes the expansion could fund food redistribution costs. But those plans are on hold, he says, now that a key investor has left.
“I put my entire family, my other company on the line to do this and I’m as close as it can be to losing everything,” said Lilley, who says he hasn’t paid himself since the operation began four years ago.
Lilley says money raised will help him set-up the non-profit side and apply for grants, so the organization can continue to redistribute food to those in need.
“We’re an impact-first company, whether it’s a for-profit model or a non-profit, the whole point is that the system needs to be financed,” said Lilley.
‘Integral’ work, says food bank
ReFeed is an “integral” part of addressing food insecurity as a record number of British Columbians are turning to food banks to feed themselves, said David Long, CEO of Greater Vancouver Food Banks.
Amid skyrocketing demand, food banks don’t have the resources to collect, sort and store food waste to find what’s edible for clients, said Long.
“I think what Stuart has in this circular system that he’s created, it should be recreated all over the province,” he said.
On Saturday, local farmer Johnny Wu was at ReFeed to pick-up feed for his livestock, saying it helps lower his own costs.
“ReFeed actually helped us a lot,” he told CBC News. “They give us really good, cheap food to support our animals. We really appreciate it.”
Kelleen Wiseman, who directs the University of British Columbia’s masters of food and resource economics program, says it’s clear ReFeed is a “win-win” for people and the environment.
“It’s good for people because it gives them more food and often it can be fresher food, non-processed [food] and products like this,” she said.
But she cautioned against diverting food to food banks as the sole solution to food insecurity.
Food banks are “important because they do give people access to food, but to be clear, we don’t want stop-gaps, right? We want people to not have to access that at all,” said Wiseman.
Lilley acknowledges the role inflation, particularly in food prices, has had on “unprecedented” demand for food banks and services, like ReFeed.
On The Coast6:55Masses of mandarins dumped in North Van broaches a dialogue of how to redivert food waste
The produce distribution company Fresh Direct Produce has been dumping loads of mandarin oranges at the North Shore Recycling and Waste Centre. It claims that the oranges did not meet the standards required for distribution, but CEO Jessica Regan of FoodMesh, a business that works with retailers to find ways to divert food from the waste stream, says otherwise. She explains how FoodMesh helps businesses avoid food waste and the options available for produce that is deemed unsuitable for stores.
However he says the organization, whether it survives or not, has also demonstrated the importance and possibility of reducing food waste.
“We’re following best practices because we don’t look at this as waste. We see these as resources,” said Lilley.
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