My adventure starts every Wednesday at 7 AM. That's the exact time when my volunteer partner comes to pick me up.
For the last year I have missed only one Wednesday, because I was ill. Why I keep doing this, week after week? Because with the right goal and right community anything is possible.
We drive to the nearby church where our truck and our driver are waiting for us. We start by checking the truck if everything is ok, inspect the lights, tires.
Starting with empty truck might look disappointing, but until the end of the post you will see that it's the opposite feeling I have. I wish every morning we have bigger truck!
During the winter at 7 AM it's still completely dark here in Vancouver so we are always at the lookout for coyotes and bears. Right now days are longer so when we start our journey, it's already daylight (almost!).
Weather doesn't any role neither. For volunteers it can be sunny, rainy (most of the time it is), even snow, we know we have to show up and do our parts. This winter we didn't have any real snow, just one day it started to snow and lasted for 3 hours. I thought it snowing so heavy we'll have proper winter, but the rain that fell after it washed away everything in a blink of an eye.
We need to cover several stores across Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody. We are registered Charity Organization called Food Link Society operating in metro Vancouver, Canada.
Our mission is to save extra food from the stores and other donation partners and deliver that food to people in need.
To lead the way in food recovery by rescuing surplus food, distributing it to those in need, and advocating for sustainable solutions that eliminate food waste and hunger, thus enhancing food security for vulnerable populations. Our goal for the next two years is to establish 'Food Security Through Zero Food Waste' as a pilot project in Coquitlam, promoting sustainable urban food systems and ensuring access to nutritious meals for our community.
Store after store and our truck is no longer empty. Boxes with bakery, produce, grocery are starting to fill the void.
My team saves food every Wednesday but we actually have dedicated teams for every day of the week. We have over 400 volunteers working together as a family. (but we always need more hands to join :)
Along the way we can enjoy cityscape.
During our regular day we have to visit 7-8 stores scattered around tri-cities.
Traffic is some days better than others but the real challenge, as you can see from the picture below, is to do perfect maneuver without too much shaking of the boxes inside. Luckily we have experienced drivers.
Even if it's gloomy day like this, I always have good feeling about saving the food. Think about it, all these boxes of perfectly good food would be at landfill if we didn't do our part. Such a waste, right?
In the end our truck is almost full. Picture below shows how many food we collected two stores before the tour ends. Sometimes we have to deliver and unload the truck and come back for a second round because we don't have enough space for everything!
We usually finish our daily mission around noon, but it really depends on the traffic and conditions along the way.
So there you go, this is my introduction post.
If you are interested to learn more about food rescue follow this account.
Thank you!