LEAMINGTON, ON - I’m all about a good partnership—Sunny and Cher, Frodo and Sam, peanut butter and jelly, Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham... I mean, the list goes on and on. Bottom line, I love it when two powerful forces combine to create something really beautiful for the world. I can now add NatureFresh™ Farms to the list, as it teams up with Forgotten Harvest to reduce its food waste footprint. The latter is a perishable food rescue and redistribution organization that delivers nutritious food to people in need, and in 2018, the partnership has brought over 150,000 pounds of fresh goods to those in need.

More and more attention is being drawn toward the issue of food waste, which is estimated to be about 1.3 billion tons throughout the world every year. The food sits in landfills, emits greenhouse gases (primarily methane), and sadly wastes away as it damages the environment. As consumers and businesses become increasingly more aware of the dangers in food waste, solutions to the problem are popping up. NatureFresh is killing two birds with one stone with its partnership. The two, as a team, reduce food waste and help feed the communities they serve.

“The initial creation of this donation program saw some obstacles, as every new program does, but once people started to realize how much food we were saving, it really opened their eyes to the good we could do as a company,” NatureFresh’s Allocation/Shipping Manager, Justin Guenther, said in a press release.

Guenther has been driving the program’s development, and since its implementation, the company has consistently collected and donated greenhouse-grown produce that it would otherwise be unable to sell at retail—produce that is still nutritious and fully edible. Forgotten Harvest has repackaged the goods into family-focused sizes, which are then distributed to its network of food banks.

“Working with an organization like Forgotten Harvest, as well as many other community food banks, means that our company can help even more people live healthier lives. To build strong communities, it’s essential to work hand-in-hand with like-minded organizations,” said Founder and CEO of NatureFresh Peter Quiring.

By the end of 2018, the company expects to reallocate about 600,000 pounds of produce that will feed underprivileged families needing nutritious foods with the help of Forgotten Harvest’s food bank network.

The company has an established relationship with the organization, having been a close partner since 2011. The nonprofit uses its 35 trucks and 16,000 annual volunteers to deliver fresh produce like that from NatureFresh to its massive local and international network of food banks.

“As metro Detroit’s only fresh food rescue, our partnership with NatureFresh is a critical portion of our supply chain. Because of these efforts, Forgotten Harvest can deliver on the promise of providing a fresh nutritious mix of food, delivered free of charge, to the over 250 partner agencies we support in our community,” Forgotten Harvest’s Director of Marketing & Public Relations, Chris Ivey, shared.

NatureFresh is on a mission to engage with local food banks and food rescue organizations, including Southwestern Ontario Gleaners, to help the communities it serves.

...and now I have Sunny and Cher's "I Got You, Babe" stuck in my head, what about you?

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