Get involved
For farms
If you have produce you cannot sell, read this.
Some of what a farm grows never finds a buyer. A contract falls through, a specification changes, or the fruit is the wrong size for a shelf.
That produce is edible and it is already grown. Rather than being disced back into the field, which means ploughed under where it grew, it can go to a food bank or food rescue organization that collects it. A chapter of The Neighbour’s Table asks one question: “Do you have surplus or grade-out produce this season that you cannot sell?” If you say yes, the chapter gives you the contact of an organization that collects, free, with its own vehicle. You arrange the pickup with it directly. Students never visit the farm and never handle the produce.
An estimated 13% of the fruits and vegetables grown in Canada go unharvested or are discarded after harvest, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada. Organizations such as Second Harvest’s From the Farm program publish free pickup of surplus and grade-outs of any volume.
Second Harvest’s From the Farm program is where every yes goes by default. It is a public program that publishes free farm pickup across Canada, and any farm can contact it directly at fromthefarm@secondharvest.ca or use the Second Harvest Food Rescue App. A local food bank is named to you only after it has confirmed in writing that it can collect from your area. We do not issue tax receipts. Any receipt comes from the organization that collects the food, under its own rules.
It is already grown.
Get involved
Every way of working with The Neighbour’s Table sits on one page: farms, students, schools, and food banks. If you are a grower, this page is the one you want.
Get involved
Other ways
There is more than one way to be useful to this organization. Farms, students, schools and community food organizations each have a part, and the page sets out what each one looks like.
How you can help
How chapters work
Each chapter is a club of its own school. HQ assigns each chapter its own area, so that no farm hears from two chapters. Approved chapters will be listed on our chapters page.
Our chapters
