Grey Bruce’s largest Meal Program and Food Bank continue to join hands in the community to offer “Grey Bruce Food Share” (GBFS) – a formal partnership of OSHaRE and The Salvation Army.
OSHaRE and The Salvation Army have a long-standing relationship of providing and sharing food. During the pandemic, they took food sharing to a new level by contributing surplus food items to other charities and non-profits across Grey Bruce.
Alice Wannan, from The Salvation Army says, “We have always been each other’s greatest supporter, knowing that the work we do together - is for the benefit of those we serve in our community.” Colleen Trask Seaman, Executive Director of OSHaRE affirmed that “OSHaRE’s driving principle remains, ‘what we have, we will share’ – this initiative extends that deeper into our community.”
OSHaRE is Grey Bruce’s largest recipient of Second Harvest’s Food Rescue – also known as food recovery or surplus food redistribution. It is the practice of gleaning edible food that would otherwise go to waste from grocery stores, restaurants, farms, and distributing it to local food banks and meal programs. On average OSHaRE rescues over 11 tons of food monthly and The Salvation Army approximately 3 tons over the same duration. As the program expands, those numbers will increase substantially, diverting more waste from our landfills and connecting more people in our community who are in need with healthy nutritious food.
This summer, the two organizations will partner to form a program initiative – “Grey Bruce Food Share” to be located at 263 - 10th Street East Owen Sound, made possible by the ongoing support of Barry’s Construction. GBFS will continue to support over 25 local food sharing agencies who support families and individuals struggling with food insecurity. Trask speaks to the impact of Food Rescue – “It will provide our partner agencies who work to ensure that people have enough healthy food, an opportunity to share from GBFS at no cost, the fresh produce, meat and nonperishable surplus goods donated by our local business partners”
The Salvation Army will use the fresh produce from GBFS to implement Grey Bruce’s first “Fresh Food – Food Bank” a healthy shift in food options provided to individuals and families in need. This process has been on-going for years and with the partnership of Second Harvest’s Food Rescue and GBFS will provide countless healthy food options to over 700 participants using their services every month
Grey Bruce Food Share is proud to partner with a growing list of community business partners (in alphabetical order)
Chapmans Ice Cream; Food Basics- Owen Sound ; Foodland -Owen Sound; Giant Tiger; Local Farms and Orchards; Metro; The European Bakery Cafe; The Wholesale Club; Dean & Wendy’s NOFRILLS; Shoppers Drug Mart –Owen Sound Down Town; Shoppers Drug Mart – Owen Sound East Side; Shoppers Drug Mart – Saugeen Shores; Starbucks – Owen Sound; Starbucks – Saugeen Shores; Walmart – Owen Sound; Walmart – Saugeen Shores; Zehrs -Owen Sound
source: media release
