Registered charities and non-profit organizations register a free account. When a business in your area has food to donate, the system sends you a notice by email. You check out the details of the donation and when the business needs pickup. If you’re interested and can make the pickup time, claim the donation.   

Once you’ve claimed the donation, it’s your responsibility to get it picked up during the time window. Make sure you arrive on time and follow the pickup details provided by the business. Get the food and return it to your organization.    

Once you’ve returned, log in to the app and mark the donation as complete. Both your organization and the business can now track the metrics associated with the donation, including pounds rescued, meals provided, value of the food and greenhouse gases averted.   

Check out this video that shows you how to claim a donation on the app.

Any food that is safe to eat can be donated. Check out our Best Before Date Timetable for a quick guide on when foods can be donated and consumed. However, to ensure everyone’s safety, these foods cannot be donated: 

• Leftover food that has been plated and served, including salad bar ingredients that are exposed to public touch
• Leftover food that has been plated and served, including salad bar ingredients that are exposed to public touch  
• Prepared food that has been in the temperature danger zone for 2 hours or more  
• Food or drinks with alcohol and/or medicinal ingredients  
• Packaged food that’s been opened or has a broken seal  
• Sushi  
• Food from people’s homes  

Every province and territory in Canada has a food donation act that protects organizations from liability when donating food in good faith. Under the food donation acts, incorporated businesses, non-profits, employees, and volunteers are not liable for damages resulting from the consumption of donated food.   

Second Harvest takes this assurance one step further by offering education to recipient organizations on safe food handling. Donating through the app provides a digital paper trail for donations. Should a business need to recall a product, we know exactly where to find it. 

Absolutely. Second Harvest values and prioritizes your existing partnerships. We’re here to enhance them if we can, while allowing you to track your impact along the way. If you’d like to get your donation partner registered, let them know about the app and ask them to sign up.   

Once registered, a business can created a “targeted” donation, making that donation available to a single non-profit of their choice. This is a great option for existing partnerships.  

To help get your donation partner registered, reach out to us at foodrescue@secondharvest.ca. 

We take food safety seriously and ask that food donors and recipient organizations comply with their provincial or territorial food safety requirements. All facilities need to be up to date with health inspections and food safe handling training for anyone who prepares food.  

Our training and education programs provide tools, training and safe food handler certification to our non-profit partners, ensuring they meet and exceed food safety standards.

Things change, we get that. If you need to cancel your pickup, log in to the app and cancel it there. Note that our terms and conditions state that non-profits cannot cancel donations with four hours or less to the pickup time. This ensures that businesses get their food picked up, so that we can keep reducing food waste together.   

Here's a quick tutorial on how to cancel a pickup in the app. Remember, please only cancel if it’s absolutely necessary.   

None! We’re a charity just trying to make the world a better place. You can join us, but you never have to post or claim a donation if you don’t want to. You can always turn your notifications on or off to suit your needs.   

Of course, our food rescue programs are always completely free.

Donations come in all shapes and sizes, depending on the business. A farmer may have thousands of pounds of carrots to donate at the end of a season, while a café may have a few sandwiches to donate each workday. Our food rescue model puts the choice in our network partners’ hands, so that you can see donations in your area and select the ones that are right for you. Don’t worry if you see something that you can’t use. We can be sure that there is another organization who will be a great fit. 

Any business or registered non-profit can log in and post or claim a donation. We work hard to get donations matched with a nearby organization who can use it, but we can’t guarantee that every donation will be claimed, or that there will always be donations available for every organization. We’re a charity who is passionate about reducing food waste and feeding people. We’ll do everything we can to get donations for your location.