North Okanagan
Food Recovery Network
The Regional District of North Okanagan has provided funding to support the building of a strong food-recovery network with FoodMesh.
FoodMesh is building a food recovery network of North Okanagan-based businesses, charities, and farmers to connect those with surplus food quickly and efficiently to those in the region who need it.
Thank you to our sponsor
Salvation Army Vernon Community Church picking up food that its local Buy-Low Foods store in Vernon is no longer able to sell, but is still perfectly edible, to be shared with people in need.
Get involved
Joining the network is completely free.
All you need to do is complete a quick form, and we’ll take care of the rest.
When you’re part of the network, you can take advantage of the following services:
Surplus Marketplace
For your wholesale volumes of surplus food, our online B2B Marketplace will connect you to organizations to take that food. You can choose to sell it at a reduced cost or donate it.
Sign up if you’re a:
Food business of any kind
Hunger-relief organization
Managed Diversion Services
If you are a grocery retailer, we can help you significantly reduce your daily food waste by diverting the maximum volume of your unsalable food to local hunger-relief organizations and hobby farmers.
Sign up if you’re a:
Grocery retailer
Hunger-relief organization
Hobby farmer
If FoodMesh’s services can’t help you with your unique food recovery needs, we will draw on our extensive network to try to connect you to an organization that can.
Organizations in the region participating in food recovery
This interactive map shows a directory of organizations in North Okanagan that are known to be participating in food recovery, by either donating their unsold food or rescuing surplus food. Click on the icon on the map to learn more about the organization.
Those labeled ‘FoodMesh verified’ are working with us, either on our Marketplace or through Managed Diversion Services. To see the impact these organizations are having, select ‘Impact Metrics’ on the left-hand menu.
Free access to FoodMesh services and technology for 10 organizations
Grocery retailers
We are offering five retailers free access to our managed retail food diversion service. We can help you maximize the volume of your unsold food going to people who need it most in your local community, at no cost to you.
Hunger-relief organizations
We are also offering five hunger-relief organizations exclusive access to FoodMesh’s custom-built Donation Tracking app, so you can keep track of the volume of food you are receiving from all of your donors, to help with your reporting and grant-writing processes.
We welcome hobby farmers to our network, to rescue food that is no longer suitable for human consumption. Here, Save-On-Foods' donations are being enjoyed by the animals of a local farm.
Network spotlight
There are a lot of organizations in the North Okanagan that are doing outstanding work to keep surplus food out of waste streams. Meet some of them here:
Salvation Army Vernon offers a house of hope for North Okanagan residents
Find out how this extraordinary charity turns rescued food into connections and support for its clientele
Spotlight on: North Okanagan Valley Gleaners
This outstanding organization turns unwanted vegetables into a dried vegetable soup mix for humanitarian aid and Christian missions overseas.
Spotlight on: Unusually Good
Enactus Okanagan College students came up with the brilliant idea of rescuing aesthetically imperfect local apples, and turning them into nutritious apple chips to donate to school
Spotlight on: Slow Bottled Sunday
This Okanagan-based business turns ugly produce destined to waste streams into delicious sauces and condiments.
