Industry Food Donations

If you have palletized food from a wholesaler, retailer, or farm, we would be happy to accept them based on our capacity and Food Acceptance Policy.

The GVFB no longer accepts food donations with the exception of industry retailers and business donations. If you are looking to donate smaller household or pantry food items, please read our food referral list. 

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Food Acceptancy Policy

Industry food donations​

Did you know that GVFB accepts safe, quality food from businesses such as farms, food wholesalers, large chain distribution warehouses, retail stores and grocers?

These industry donations are critical and make up over 80% of all food donated to the GVFB. Between July 2023 and June 2024, we received a total of 4.8 M pounds of food from our industry partners!

No Food Drives

After much consideration, we have decided to move away from food drives for three reasons:

  • Unhealthy Food Donations – the food we distribute is packed with nutrition and the menus are dietitian-designed; most of the food we receive from food drives is neither.
  • Labour Intensive – the support required for food drives is labour-intensive and an inefficient use of volunteer hours.
  • Better Buying Power – we can buy more food and better food with our buying power (averages 2:1), because of the industry partnerships we have and the volume of food we purchase.
Alternatively, you can support the GVFB by hosting a Virtual Food Drive. 
If you have already completed your food drive, please reach out to our list of Community Agency Partners that could accept your donation.
List of Community Agency Partners

Donations

We accept quality food from all types of businesses including:

  • Farms with excess/overage of crops
  • Large retail distribution facilities
  • Direct donations from retailers with food that is close to best before date
  • Direct donations from warehouses that has not hit the retail shelves
  • Food that has been frozen on or before its best before date

We also accept usable, quality, single SKU pallet donations from the food industry that may be mislabeled or close to best before dates. If you are unsure if a product meets our needs, please check out our Donation Acceptance Policy.

Food Waste

~60% of all of the food produced in Canada is either lost or wasted. Of that, 32 percent – equaling 11.2 million metric tonnes of lost food – is avoidable and is edible food that could be redirected to support people in our communities.

The total financial value of this potentially rescuable lost and wasted food is a staggering $49.46 billion.

Source: Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste

Food rescue helps us provide food to those in need in addition to removing usable food from the waste stream contributing to creating a sustainable food system.

Resources

If you are not affiliated with a food industry business and you have fresh food to donate, you can reach out to:

Alternatively, you can connect with BC 2-1-1 to find your local meal-providing agency kitchen or soup kitchen.

BC Farmer Tax Credit

Are you a farmer donating large quantities of food to a local charity?

You may be interested in learning more about the BC Farmer Tax Credit program! The BC Farmers’ Food Donation Tax Credit is a non-refundable income tax credit to encourage farmers and farming corporations to donate certain agricultural products to registered charities.

Learn More

If you have a palletized food donation,
please contact us.

Assistant Operations Manager

Brian Lau

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