A senior official with Second Harvest is urging the federal government to reinstate the Surplus Food Rescue program that was implemented in mid-summer 2020 as part of the federal government’s COVID response measures.

Speaking to the Commons Agriculture Committee, Second Harvest chief executive officer Lori Nikkel says they were able to purchase over nine million pounds of fresh surplus food, like eggs, chicken, salmon and fresh produce. It was then re-distributed to over 350 communities across Canada. Nikkel says the program—-which no longer exists—had a positive impact and is needed now more than ever.

Second Harvest is also calling on the committee to support the creation of a tax credit to incentivize Canadian businesses to reduce food waste and provide surplus food to organizations to distribute to food banks and other charities. Nikkel says over 100,000 Canadian businesses have the ability to reduce their food waste but do not have the incentive to do so.

An estimated 58 per cent of all food produced for Canadians—approximately 35.5 million tonnes—is lost or wasted annually.

The Food Banks Canada annual report says a record number of people are using their services. There were 1.5 million visits in March to food banks across the country—15 per cent more than the same month last year and 35 per cent above the number in March 2019, prior to the COVID pandemic.

There were 44,851 visits to Saskatchewan food banks in March 2022. These are the demographics covering those visits:  single people (44.5%), single parent families (26.7%), two parent families (14%) and couples with no children (6.3%)