Harvest Hands provides the link between producers of surplus food and hungry people

A southern Ontario organization that redistributes surplus food to those who need it is growing rapidly.

Harvest Hands is based in St. Thomas and collects and distributes food in an area that stretches from Windsor to Oshawa.

Why it matters: Unused food is a waste of the resources used to create it, especially when one in five people in Canada are food insecure.

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Harvest Hands now serves more than 300 organizations across southern Ontario, double the number served a year ago, says Jim Collins, founder and executive director of the volunteer organization.

Those organizations include food banks, food kitchens and church groups that work with those who are insecure in their food supply.

He was at the London Farm Show on March 6 to talk about Harvest Hands and the important role that farmers play in providing fresh produce to the organization. A Harvest Hands booth drew interest from farmers, many of whom had never heard of the organization.

Harvest Hands has eight vehicles which collect and distribute food in their coverage areas.

“Early in 2020, we said there must be more we can do,” to manage the unfortunate juxtaposition of surplus and wasted food in some areas and others who go hungry, he said.

“At one end of the food spectrum there is massive surplus and waste, and at the other end are people who are food insecure,” he said during a presentation at the show.

Since Harvest Hands started operating, it has distributed $26 million worth of food and is run by 275 volunteers who put in 1,000 hours per week.

What can farmers do?

Collins encouraged farmers to be part of a grander scheme of making the food system more equitable and efficient.

Contact Harvest Hands if there’s surplus food at the farm, especially food that isn’t perfect, but is still edible, or when an abundant harvest means some produce has to be left in the field.

Harvest Hands will never say no to any food offered, which includes bringing people to a farm to harvest produce left in a field.