For food banks

Introductions to farms that have fresh fruit and vegetables to give, once you have confirmed in writing what you can collect. The farm donates the produce and you collect it with your own vehicle. Volumes follow the season.

Most of it is produce that is edible and sound but surplus to what a farm can sell: a heavier crop than the market wanted, a specification change, fruit the wrong size for a shelf.

What we ask of you.

• Tell us in writing the area you can collect from and the produce you take.
• Tell us your capacity honestly.
• Tell the chapter whether you collected, so it can close the record.
• That is the whole of it. We ask the farms. You collect, and you serve.

A chapter builds a list of farms in the area HQ assigns it and asks each one the same question. When a grower says yes, the chapter gives the farm the published contact of an organization that collects. Where that organization has agreed in writing to receive introductions, the chapter sends an introduction email copying the farm and its Teacher Advisor. The farm arranges the pickup with the organization directly.

Members record every contact and every outcome in the chapter’s farm record.

Any eligible high school in Canada can apply to open a chapter, and the founding work is in Ontario. Write to us wherever you are.

The produce is grown and it is otherwise written off. The question is short, it comes from a named school chapter, and it asks for nothing else.

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. That is the produce we ask about.

The barrier has never been supply. What is missing is someone to ask the grower and to hand the answer to an organization that collects. That is the work.

Talking to us still helps. Whatever you already have stays yours, and any introduction a chapter sends is in addition to it.

Tell us on the contact page what you can collect, from which area and when.

Notice is agreed between you and the farm. The farm arranges each pickup with you directly, and a chapter never sets dates or quantities. Some farms know weeks ahead of a harvest. Others know the same week, when a buyer drops a load. The contact page reaches HQ.

Students never handle it. The farm gives the produce directly to you and you collect it. A chapter introduces the farm, copies its Teacher Advisor and records the outcome. It never arranges dates, transport or quantities. A clean record of every contact and every outcome is what makes the second season easier than the first. Write to us on the contact page.

You will not be.

We do not publish the names of organizations that receive introductions, and we do not publish the names of farms. What we publish is the research behind our work, in plain terms. If you would rather be named, tell us and we will name you. If not, the arrangement is between the farm and your organization, and it stays there.

That is standard. Our contact form reaches a person, and everything else we publish sits on the all resources page.