Just in time for the holiday giving season, Hellmann’s (the Mayo People) have launched a new program to feed the hungry. And they’re using leftover food from grocery stores to do it. It’s the largest direct food recycling effort of its kind, so far…
Members of La Tablée des Chefs preparing to
feed a stadium on ‘conserved’ food…
Hellmann’s Canada, the ‘Real Mayonnaise’ people, are ramping up their longtime association with the Real Food Movement to provide ‘More Real Food To More Real People’. Since 2007, they’ve been sponsoring the efforts of the Real Food to collect leftover food from supermarkets which would otherwise go to waste and delivering it to local soup kitchens. And that makes those lucky operations much more than ‘soup kitchens’.
They proved their point in a dramatic way…
Recently, Hellmann’s set up a surprise for fans at Toronto’s Scotia Bank Place stadium… They prepared and served enough food from ‘leftovers’ to serve everyone in the stands a free meal.
What they do…
Helmann’s prefaces its Real Food Rescue website thus:
Hellmann’s believes that real food is too precious to waste. Since 2007, we’ve been taking a stand with The Real Food Movement. This year, we’re teaming up with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and food waste experts La Tablée des Chefs to help Canadians conserve more food.
The site goes on to say that Canadians are the second-worst food wasters in the world, tossing away more than (C)$31 billion worth of perfectly good food every year. That’s (C)$59,000 a minute. Sounds like a lot, but it’s probably just a refection of the fact that we have such a great abundance and selection of food we enjoy here in North America, which we take for granted. That’s the first thing we have to get over if we’re going to start valuing food properly and learning to care where it goes.
Not to mention, all that wasted food represents 193 million tonnes of greenhouse gasses every year.
Hellmann’s efforts alone produce 50,000 meals a year for the homeless, the needy and older folks living alone who can’t or don’t bother to cook. Find out more at Hellmann’s YouTube channel…
My take…
Hellmann’s is making a real difference for thousands of folks in need of ‘real food’. But it’s just a drop in the old soup kettle. We need more corporations to sponsor more efforts in partnership with The Real Food Movement and divert more perfectly good food from the landfills.
I read somewhere that, when you feed a person, you give them hope. We have legions of folks who need a little hope right now. Thousands of General Motors auto workers are being laid off permanently as we speak, the first of the big corporations to feel the real effects of Trump Era economics.
On another front… I’d like to see Hellmann’s and The Real Food Movement reach even further back in the food chain and collect from farmers the ‘Ugly’ food that’s often culled and landfilled at the earliest stages of the harvest. Millions of tonnes of soft fruits and veggies never even get shipped to the wholesalers because they’re the wrong size or have appearance defects. This ‘hidden’ waste is just as big a concern as the stuff supermarkets toss out.
As individuals, we can all help by volunteering at local Community Kitchens and Food Banks. And folks like us, with more than your average knowledge of food and cooking will be especially valued by those organizations!
Let’s all do what we can to cut food waste and bring Real Food to Real People who need it.
~ Maggie J.