National Post (National Edition)

Addressing Food Insecurity and Waste with KFC’s Harvest Program

- Tania Amardeil This page was sponsored by KFC.

Canada is a prosperous, affluent country with a progressiv­e social welfare system — so many people are shocked to learn that one in eight Canadians live in food-insecure households. About 850,000 Canadians turn to food donation centres each month, a third of them children. Food insecurity is a real issue in Canada, as is food waste — 60 percent of food produced is wasted.

Addressing food waste proactivel­y

John Pacitti is the Director of Developmen­t — Global at Food Donation Connection, one of the many organizati­ons working to address these issues. “We work with restaurant­s and food service companies to help coordinate their donations of surplus food,” he says. “There’s a balance between restaurant­s making sure they’re not overproduc­ing and serving good-quality, hot, fresh food to their customers. Now restaurant­s have developed a way to safely redirect any surplus food to local charities that are feeding people in need.”

Rochelle Berenyi is the Executive Director at Carmichael Outreach, a non-profit in Regina, SK, that provides services to people experienci­ng poverty and homelessne­ss, from a housing support program and a free donation-based thrift shop to a meal program that prepares free lunches for the community.

“One of our main pillars is our food recovery program,” says Berenyi. “We call it the food recovery program because we work with partners in the community, like KFC, recovering food that may otherwise have gone to waste that we can use to prepare meals to provide to the community.”

Better together

Both organizati­ons have partnered with KFC and its Harvest Program, through which KFC’s restaurant­s donate their surplus chicken to local charities across Canada. The initiative helps address the needs of food-insecure people while also keeping good food out of the landfill. “It’s a win-win for the restaurant­s, community, and environmen­t,” says Pacitti.

KFC’s Harvest Program provides the essential protein required for balanced meals. Since 2016, KFC has donated over 201,000 pounds of chicken to 244 Canadian charities. Seeing that food insecurity was a growing

Feeding those in need has always been at the very core of KFC’s

mission.

problem at the onset of COVID-19, it further expanded its donations to include additional items like fresh produce, chicken tenders, popcorn chicken, and Big Crunch filets. In 2020 alone, 51,640 pounds of food have been donated to 184 unique charity locations, with 37,665 pounds having been donated since the onset of COVID-19. During the pandemic, KFC also ran a 1 Bucket = 1 Meal campaign to drive donations to Food Banks of Canada as part of its social purpose program.

“Feeding those in need has always been at the very core of KFC’s mission,” says Nivera Wallani, President and General Manager of KFC Canada. “I’m so proud of our Harvest Program and our franchisee­s and team members for committing to it. We’re making a difference at the local level all across Canada.”

Food insecurity and food waste are critical concerns that must be addressed, and fortunatel­y many organizati­ons are working hard to eradicate them. In partnershi­p with charities from coast to coast, KFC’s Harvest Program is leading the way.

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