VFR Programs
Learn about our programs! To get started, watch our 3-minute overview video.
Food Recovery Program
VFR’s food recovery program started in March 2020 and is scaling rapidly in Metro Vancouver to meet the demand from both food businesses and nonprofits. In 2023, our program expanded by 51% to provide over 1 million pounds of surplus food to our nonprofit partners; and we now deliver surplus food to nonprofits in Vancouver, Burnaby, Delta, the North Shore, and Surrey.
Community Meal Program
In partnership with Chef TJ Conwi of Ono Vancouver and ReRoot, Vancouver Food Runners has been supporting a community meal program that uses surplus ingredients to create nourishing meals for Vancouver residents experiencing food insecurity. VFR volunteers bring surplus food donations to Coho Commissary, then Chef TJ and his team use the ingredients to make healthy meals; and, finally, VFR volunteers pick up the meals and deliver them to Vancouver nonprofits participating in the program. In 2023, 38,100 meals were delivered by VFR volunteers to Vancouver nonprofits.
School Volunteer Program
Since 2022, VFR has run a volunteer program for high school students, and over 25+ volunteer sessions have been conducted. Through the program, students have a hands-on volunteer experience transporting surplus food to our nonprofit partner sites. At food businesses, they gain knowledge about the environmental impacts of wasted food, sustainability in the food industry, and the circular economy; and at nonprofit sites, they learn about the intersecting issues of food security, poverty, housing, mental health, and other critical societal issues.
Hub-and-Spoke Food Delivery
The hub-and-spoke model provides a means of food distribution that relies on a central hub location (where the food is organized/prepared) and a number of spokes (peripheral sites where the food is distributed to the community). When VFR volunteers support with delivering food from the hub to the spoke sites, this allows nonprofit staff to focus more of their time, money, energy, and resources on their core program work as well as supporting clients directly. Nonprofit staff have immense gratitude for this food delivery service that VFR volunteers provide.