Celebrating Save-On-Foods’ 50 million meals donated milestone

We are thrilled to celebrate Save-On-Foods’ incredible donation of 50 million meals to Canadians through its partnership with FoodMesh. This ongoing commitment to diverting unsold food away from landfills has filled the kitchens of food-insecure households across the country.

FoodMesh’s partnership with Save-On-Foods started in 2018 at Save-on-Foods’ Garrison location in Chilliwack in British Columbia. “Save-On-Foods was the first retailer to take a chance with FoodMesh, back when we had just opened our doors as a professional food recovery service provider and the broader industry didn’t even seem to know it had a food waste problem,” said Jessica Regan, FoodMesh Co-Founder and CEO. Seven years later, 98 Save-on-Foods stores in multiple provinces are now partnered with  FoodMesh to redistribute their unsold food to a network of over 170 charities and farmers across Canada, to ensure their unsold food is put to its highest and best end use, and away from waste streams.

50 million meals is difficult to conceptualize. It is enough meals to feed a single person three meals a day for over 140,000 years. And if every Canadian sat down to a meal together, made from the food donated by Save-On-Foods, we would have over 9 million meals in leftovers. The donations consist of food that is perfectly fine to eat, but cannot be sold for various reasons, such as it’s approaching its best before date, has aesthetic imperfections that make it less appealing to shoppers. Without Save-On-Foods donating through FoodMesh, all this food would have ended up in waste streams.

This milestone reflects a powerful dual impact: meeting urgent community needs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions through responsible management of surplus food. It comes at a time when food insecurity has reached increasingly concerning levels in Canada—with food waste deeply connected to the issue. According to Food Banks Canada’s HungerCount 2024 report, over 8.7 million people—nearly 23% of Canadians—were living in households experiencing some level of food insecurity in 2022/2023, an increase of almost 1.8 million people from the year before.

“We all know that food prices are increasing, at the same rate that food insecurity is. The FoodMesh Program has helped us reach so many more families than we could have ever imagined,” said Caitlin Rathgeber of Tisdale and Area Community Action Co-operative Ltd who picks up donations twice weekly from Save-On-Foods Tisdale, Saskatchewan. “One member recently told us their family wouldn’t have made it without FoodMesh. This partnership makes it possible for us to help increase food security, right here, in our community.”

Not only do the food donations from Save-On-Foods feed people, but anything that is not edible to humans, like vegetable trimmings and stale bread, is donated to farmers for their farm animals. “The donations supply so much joy into the lives of our little family. I cannot express my gratitude enough. So thank you for your continued participation in donating to your local small farmers,” said farmer Crystal who used to pick up from Save-On-Foods Langley Downtown, British Columbia.

None of this would have been possible without Save-On-Foods and all the store staff that are dedicated to setting aside and preparing the donations for pickup by the charities and farmers. “We continually hear from Save-On staff their excitement and pride in being able to divert food from waste to usable food,” said Daniel Ryder of Salvation Army Prince George, who picks up donations everyday from four different Save-On-Foods locations in Prince George, British Columbia.

This milestone is a celebration of progress—but also a glimpse of what’s possible. We look forward to seeing Save-On-Foods continue to expand their impact, reducing waste, feeding communities, and inspiring others to follow their lead.

To learn more about Save-On-Foods’ environmental and social impact, visit their website and follow along on Instagram, Facebook and X.

Written by Claire Lustig & Clea Wells, FoodMesh