The Second Harvest Food Rescue App
Food donations from businesses support a network of over 4,400 social service organizations across Canada, providing healthy and fresh food for community initiatives – from snacks for children’s after-school programs, meals for seniors and prepared meals, to food for shelters, drop-in centres, and local food banks.
Donating food helps protect our environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and it keeps healthy food where it belongs: in pantries and on plates, not in landfill. What’s not to love?
Here’s how the app works
Get started in a few simple steps:
- Register online or download the mobile app to create your food business or non-profit account
- Businesses log in and create a donation posting
- Nearby non-profits who are on the app are notified about the available donations. They view the details and can claim the donation if they’re interested
- The claiming non-profit picks up the food from the business at the agreed time
Making Change Happen
Since launching the app in 2018, we’ve made tremendous progress in the food waste revolution.
Learn More94.6 Million
Pounds of food rescued
$286 Million
Worth of food rescued
301 Million
Pounds of greenhouse gases averted
Want to learn more?
Read our FAQ to learn more about food rescue, our Food Rescue App, and the importance of ensuring good food gets to people’s plates, not landfill. You can also visit our Resource Library for lots of great food rescue info and tools.
The app even shows you the environmental impact of your rescued food and lets you share your impact story on social media, right from the app.
Check out this video that shows you how to post a donation on the app.
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.
- 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
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.
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.
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.
Here's a quick tutorial on how to cancel a pickup in the app. Remember, please only cancel if it’s absolutely necessary.
Of course, our food rescue programs are always completely free.