The Supermarket Recovery Program (SRP) is the first of its kind in Canada. It is a simple and sustainable solution to issues related to both food waste and food insecurity, in partnership with food retailers. Its mode of operation, following the requirements put forward by the retailers and ensuring that consumers are properly protected as been developed by Moisson Montreal following a two-year pilot project. The Banques alimentaires du Québec network (BAQ) currently manages the deployment of the SRP with the other Moisson organizations all across the province of Quebec.

Moisson Outaouais has been using the SRP for the last six years; thanks to this program, Moisson Outaouais retrieves close to 36 000 kilos of highly nutritive perishable food products in more than 28 regional grocery stores every month. A whole range of food products had been made available thanks to the SRP, but the program’s biggest asset is the retrieval of unsold meat products that are still safe for human consumption. Meat is a very valuable product for food banks; it is rare, expensive and very nourishing. Member organizations have been able to greatly lower their food purchasing budget since receiving meat products from Moisson Outaouais. Thanks to this evolution, they can now more easily focus their resources towards their clientele’s food autonomy.

431 983 kilos of perishable food products have been redistributed towards food assistance instead of being trashed in Outaouais in 2019-2020 thanks to the SRP. This represents an amount of more than 2.9 MILLION dollar worth of food.

The SRP creates a win-win situation: it eliminates edible waste for supermarkets by supplying food to families living in poverty.