Lotus Light Food Recovery Team in Action – Food Recovery Partner Starbucks
Lotus Light’s Food Recovery Program continues to support vulnerable residents while saving valuable food from landfills. Recently, the program added another Starbucks location – Waterfront Station – to its regular pickup routes.
Lotus Light now collects surplus food from eight Starbucks locations across Metro Vancouver and distributes it to low-income families, community groups, shelters, and distribution centres.
Lotus Light launched its Food Recovery Program in 2010 with a weekly bread pickup from a North Vancouver bakery. Today, the program rescues an average of 13,000 pounds of food each month from warehouses, restaurants, bakeries, and grocery chains.
To date, the program has diverted more than one million pounds of nutritious food from landfills and distributed it to vulnerable, low-income families, helping to fight food insecurity in our communities.
The Food Recovery Program currently works with more than 22 partners, including food-recovery networks such as Second Harvest and FoodMesh, restaurant chains such as Starbucks and A&W, and various supermarkets and bakeries. It regularly supports approximately a dozen recipient organizations, including community food hubs, kitchens, agencies serving low-income families, and inner-city schools.
Lotus Light also regularly partners with corporate sponsors and community organizations to manage large-scale food-recovery initiatives. This past August, Lotus Light partnered with corporate sponsor Lactalis Canada to distribute more than 25,000 pounds of nutritious yogurt. Participating community organizations included CityReach Care Society, Guru Nanak’s Free Kitchen, Food Stash Foundation, the DTES Emergency Supply Hub, Vancouver Food Recovery Network, and Vancouver Food Runners. Together, they helped provide food to more than 10,000 low-income families.
To learn more about Lotus Light’s programs, visit vllcs.org/en/home, email llcsvancouver@gmail.com, or call 604-685-5548.
