Applications are now open for the federal government’s newly renamed surplus food rescue program — and more has changed than just the program’s name.
Applications are now open for the federal government’s newly renamed surplus food rescue program — and more has changed than just the program’s name.
When the $50 million program was announced last month, Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau wasn’t specific about which products were eligible for what was then billed as a “food surplus purchase program.”
But potatoes, chicken products and mushrooms were mentioned as foods at risk of going to waste while restaurants remain closed and the larger food service industry remains disrupted by the pandemic.
Although the government still isn’t saying exactly which commodities will be “rescued” with the new funding, the money will be allocated in rough thirds — with one third being used to buy horticulture products (such as grains, fruits and vegetables), another third earmarked for buying surplus meat and poultry products and the final third set aside for purchasing fish and seafood.
The program also has a new goal — of directing ten per cent of the program’s purchases to Northern communities, where food supplies are insecure at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic.
“With restaurants and hotels closed for weeks, many producers were left with extra food they couldn’t sell,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters during his regular briefing outside Rideau Cottage in Ottawa this morning. “Farmers work hard to raise their livestock and grow their crops. They shouldn’t be in a position where they have to see that wasted.
“This is a win-win. Farmers will have people to buy their goods and food will get to the plates of families who wouldn’t have enough otherwise.”
In the U.S., the federal government regularly purchases surplus foods from its agriculture sector and redirects them to