Food Stash foundation

Good morning! 

I remember a few years ago, we ran a survey asking readers about whether they wanted more affordable local corner and grocery stores in their neighbourhoods. Up until that point, we always had a few hundred responses — this one had well over 1,000.

Access to food is something, for a long time, that many of us took for granted. But as food prices have skyrocketed, it’s forced many of us to grapple with the cost. I took away from that poll that this was an issue many Lookout readers care about.

Today’s story from Dustin Godfrey builds on some of our previous coverage of food security and affordability in Vancouver. Like many of our best stories, the tip for it came from a reader. Don’t hesitate to send us your story ideas.

Let’s dive in!

— Geoff Sharpe, Lookout founder and managing editor

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WEATHER

Friday: 8 🌡️ 5 | ☁️

Saturday: 7 🌡️ 2 | 🌤️

Sunday: 6 🌡️ 1 | 🌤️

Monday: 6 🌡️ 1 | 🌤️

FOOD SECURITY

Food Stash Foundation rescues grocery store waste to feed Vancouver families

Story by Dustin Godfrey. Read the story online.

When Food Stash Foundation got its start a decade ago, it was about as bare-bones as it gets.

After watching the documentary Just Eat It, David Schein was moved to start what would become Food Stash. The documentary follows a Vancouver couple that swore off grocery shopping for six months to live off food they find in grocery store dumpsters.

And Schein saw in that documentary a potential model for addressing food insecurity in Vancouver.

“He took it on himself to reach out to grocery stores, … and said, ‘What are you doing with the food you’re not selling? Can I take it and instead redistribute it to other charities in the city?’” said Food Stash communications specialist Anna Gray.

Since its early days, Food Stash has grown considerably.

At first, it was just an operation to rescue good food from the trash and donate it to charities. Today, the charity still donates 80% of its food to other charities.

But it has also developed some of its own programs.

That includes a food delivery program, which Food Stash has worked with meal prep and delivery service Fresh Prep to run for the last couple of years.

And the group’s Mount Pleasant-area warehouse has a public-facing space that is set up like a grocery store, with dairy, meat, produce and pantry sections, where people can engage in a more traditional market shopping experience.

It’s since grown well beyond Schein’s one-person operation — besides running a warehouse, the organization has three trucks running every day to retrieve food from grocery stores they partner with.

In that time, the region has also seen increased demand for services like Food Stash.

The last decade has seen skyrocketing housing costs, and recent years have also seen grocery costs rise, particularly after pandemic-era restrictions were lifted.

Independent grocery stores, which are often more affordable than the big chains, have struggled in recent years, leaving communities grappling with how to address food insecurity on top of other social crises.

Food banks and other similar charities have warned year after year that the current situation isn’t tenable. It’s no surprise that Food Stash is seeing that strain as well.

“It’s people who are working two jobs and just can’t make ends meet, or it’s families that are new to Canada and can’t find work. So it’s really varied in who’s showing up to these programs,” Gray said.

Food Stash has to regularly turn people away, with programs at capacity, she added.

The food box delivery program is specifically geared towards people who self-identify as being low-income with a disability that makes it hard to leave home to get groceries.

“So people that are on our food box delivery program are often on the program for a long time, which means that spots don’t really open up that often,” Gray said.

The market program in the warehouse, on the other hand, doesn’t have restrictions on who can join, so admissions are based on a lottery system for three-month memberships.

The program has a capacity for 160 members, less than half the roughly 375 applications the program gets.

But Gray said programs like food banks and Food Stash shouldn’t need to exist.

“The food that we’re providing is a band-aid solution. We need long-term solutions to help people not be food insecure. And in order to do that, we need government support,” Gray said.

“People need money, people need higher wages, people need lower rent. So we’re always advocating for those long-term changes as well.”

Where food banks rely more on donations to buy food, Food Stash’s reliance on grocery store waste insulates it a bit more against economic downturns. But the charity still depends on donations to fund its infrastructure, including staff and capital costs.

“We have 35 food donors that we currently work with, and we’re at a bit of a point where we can’t really take much more food because we just don’t have the infrastructure for that,” Gray said.

“We don’t have the fridge space, we don’t have the freezer space, which means we can’t expand our in-house programs.”

And that leaves them vulnerable to the increasing cost of land and rents.

Their current lease on their warehouse at 290 East 1st Avenue is a time-limited lease. And while there are options to extend the lease, that would come with renegotiating rent, and it’s far from guaranteed that the new rents would be tenable for the organization.

As is, the organization shares the office space above the warehouse with other organizations to save costs, but that isn’t the only risk to the charity — the property could also be redeveloped.

That’s what happened to their previous location on West 2nd Avenue, near the Cambie Bridge.

That location was demolished and turned into a four-storey-deep hole in the ground, intended for a seven-storey creative manufacturing and office space, before the proposal was abandoned in 2024, according to Daily Hive.

The developer is now proposing a 25-storey mixed-use development, including purpose-built rentals, with council voting unanimously in favour of a tentative rezoning.

Though the location was a hole in the ground for several years, Gray said the organization was pushed out of the warehouse quicker than they expected, as the development was, at the time, advancing.

“Not wanting to have that same situation again is something that’s always on our mind,” Gray said.

“It’s not something we’re talking about day-to-day, but just larger picture, it would be nice to have a more permanent place that met all our needs and was affordable as well.”

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THE VANCOUVER NUMBER

$230 million

No, that’s not the price of a home in Vancouver, but the price that expected buyers will have to fork over to purchase the former Hudson’s Bay flagship store in downtown Vancouver. Read more ($). [Vancouver Sun[

THE AGENDA

📈 Get ready to pay more for TransLink. Starting July 1, fares will increase an average of five per cent, with fares rising between 10 to 25 cents. A one-zone ticket will cost $3.50. Monthly transit passes and West Coast Express rides will also increase by 5 per cent. Read more. [CTV]

🗳️ Former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister Moira Stillwell is running for the Vancouver Liberals in the upcoming municipal election. She joins a crowded field amongst multiple parties vying for council and mayor. As part of her announcement, she proposed bringing UBC, which has its own separate governance structure, under Vancouver. Read more ($). [Vancouver Sun]

📉 Can you guess where gas prices are going, because we sure can’t. In fact, gas fell by about five per cent on Wednesday morning, though it’s still 38 per cent higher than a month ago. Read more. [CityNews]

❌ Heads up, Hillcrest Pool users — the pool, sauna and steam room will be closed from Mar. 30 to Apr. 26 for annual maintenance. The fitness centre will remain open, but you cannot access the changing facilities or showers.

🍎 Speaking of groceries, local operators like Sungiven Foods Canada and Fruiticana are growing faster than their larger competitors like Loblaws and Pattison Group throughout Metro Vancouver. Read more. [Business in Vancouver]

🔥 Really tough news for a new Italian restaurant, Osteria Otto, which had to shut down after a fire engulfed the building at Broadway and Main. Seven fire trucks had to battle the blaze. Unfortunately, six residents were displaced, and one of the oldest single-family homes outside of downtown Vancouver, built in 1908, was damaged. Read more ($). [Vancouver Sun]

🏊 Today council will vote on whether to extend pool hours and public swim sessions at Kits, Second Beach and New Brighton Pool. It would extend public swims by three hours, and lengthen swims to two hours, amongst other changes. Read more ($). [Vancouver Sun]

⚽ FIFA organizers have cancelled between 70 to 80 per cent of hotels they booked in Vancouver, which means there are now 15,00 extra hotel room nights available, whic according to experts, is a normal part of large events like this. That means you need to tell your procrastinating friend who has FIFA tickets to book that hotel right now. Read more ($). [Globe and Mail]

Speaking of FIFA, Vancouver’s approach to dealing with the unhoused during the event is being questioned after Seattle rolled out a plan to move encampments and expand shelter and housing space. ABC Vancouver Coun. Meiszner said they are considering extending shelter hours if the province provides more funding. Read more. [Global News]

🏨 Not sure if this is something to celebrate given the cost, but Vancouver has won the title of hottest hotel market by Avison Young’s hotel performance report, with the highest rates, revenue per room and overall occupancy rates. Read more. [Urbanized]

♨️NIMBYs are finding something new to oppose in Kitsilano, as boat owners at Heritage Harbour push back against bringing a floating barge sauna to the harbour next to the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Kitsilano. They say it’s the “wrong fit” for the area. Recently, a floating swimming platform was planned for Coal Harbour, but the group moved it to North Vancouver due to regulatory issues. Read more. [CBC]

WEEKEND EVENT GUIDE

Soul Steppin Fridays | The American | Mar. 27, 9 p.m. | All levels line dancing, music focusing on soul, funk and R&B | Tickets $15

"Future Past - The Art of the Arcade" | Fingerprint Gallery | Mar. 27 6-9 p.m. | Solo exhibition featuring custom retro arcade machines and original artwork | Free

Friends of Friends Art Party | The Kent | Mar. 28, 7:30 p.m. | Dance, drink and take home art from local designers | Tickets $22

Spring Pop - Up Market | Mar. 28-29, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. | Heritage Hall | Pop-up event featuring makers, artists, and more selling goods, treats and home decor | Free

Fairview & Mount Pleasant Walking Tour | Meet at 16th and Heather | Mar. 29, 2 p.m. | Explore the history of Mount Pleasant and the housing crisis in Vancouver | Free

Curry Cup 2026 | Heritage Hall | Mar 30, 6:30-9 p.m. | Chefs compete fo the title of best curry, and you get to try each one | Tickets $94

Sips n' Sourdough | Shaktown Brewing, North Vancouver | Mar. 30 6:30-9 p.m. | Beginners workshop to learn how to make sourdough | Tickets $96

Reimagining the Public University | SFU Harbour Centre | Mar. 31, 6-9:30 p.m. | A discussion on how to reimagine universities in this turbulent time of change | Free

Public Trail Day - Cypress | Cypress Lookout | Mar. 29, 10 a.m. | Come help learn to build and maintain mountain biking trails | Free

Bizarre Bazar | Heritage Hall | Apr. 5, 11 a.m.-4 a.m. | Come grab some vintage clothing | Tickets $10

Portobello West Spring Market | Roundhouse Community Centre | Apr. 18-19 | Buy unique goods from curated local B.C. makers | Tickets $5

Vancouver Vaisakhi Parade | Ross Street Temple | Apr. 11, beginning at 11 am | Family-fun parade with as many as 300,000 people expected to watch | Free

Submit your event and it could appear here and reach 30,000+ Vancouver locals

READER SURVEY

What readers said about the closure of Sunrise Market

In our story on Wednesday, we asked readers how concerned they were about grocers like Sunrise Market disappearing. Here’s how readers voted.

In the biggest surprise, two people said they loved shopping at Loblaws! You can read the story here. Here are some responses from our community:

PHOTO OF THE DAY

It’s that time of year, when those in the rest of Canada gaze longingly at us as the weather improves and cherry blossums flourish.

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS

• Harbour Air is expanding the number of flights across the region. [ChekNews]

• A popular salad bar from Montreal is opening up in Kits and Coal Harbour. [Urbanized]

• These Vancouver coyotes were having a good time (the darker one is actually called a dark phase coyote).

• Vancouver might get a new floating hotel in Coal Harbour. [Urbanized]

• Weezer is coming to Vancouver this fall. [Vancouver is Awesome]

• Want to have your announcement featured? Learn how here.

VANCOUVER GUESSER