Maple Ridge parish combats affordability crisis with food waste reduction ministry 

Like the humble mustard seed, the Food Rescue Project at St. Patrick’s Church in Maple Ridge shows that great parish ministries can grow from tiny, humble beginnings. 

What started as a simple hot lunch program has become a bi-weekly event where unwanted food from local businesses is offered for free to locals. 

After three years – two as a small growing food program and one as an official ministry at St. Pat’s – organizer Jennifer Castle estimates they have processed over 2,000 pounds of bread alone. 

Over time, more and more people from the local community started showing up. Now, nearly one-third of the beneficiaries of the ministry are non-Catholics from the local Maple Ridge community. 

Castle is a recent convert to Catholicism, and she believes their ministry shows the openness of the Church to help anyone and everyone in need. She told The B.C. Catholic that there are no limits on who can take the food – often, they have some leftovers. 

“The current food prices, combined with housing and the costs to raise a family or survive as an elder is something everyone shares,” said Castle. 

“It’s so easy to judge people by the cars they drive or how they present themselves to the world; but I haven’t met a single person who isn’t impacted by the current cost of living.”

“I am fairly new to the faith,” she said. “This [gestures to the tables of food] has shown me how open-armed and open-minded the Church is.”

Some locals have reached out to Castle about the ministry’s impact on their lives.. 

One elderly individual wrote, “Thank you for your kindness, you just don’t realize how much relief this FOOD RESCUE helps seniors like us, but even striving families with these high grocery costs, and rent, gas – every service including air for ties. God bless you abundantly.”

Another, “Thank you for the kindness and compassion. You are sharing these most needed necessities we all need.”

Sometimes, Castle gets an emergency call from a local store needing to offload a pallet of bread or canned food; in this case, they email the community that food will be available.

One such day, Castle got a call from a local grocery store. There had been an error, and the grocer had made an undersized batch of loaves. They couldn’t sell the bread and asked if she could use them. 

“We had bread coming out of our ears,” she said. 

When it comes to produce, much of what Castle gets is classified as imperfect – a veggie has a few spots or a bag of apples has a few bruises. The stores won’t sell them, but thankfully, there is a growing desire to keep the food from going to waste. 

“All this food would be in the landfill,” she said. 

One of the most significant places the Food Rescue Project gets its donations is through Second Harvest, a Canadian charity dedicated to saving imperfect food from going to waste. According to its website, 11.2 million tons of edible food end up in landfills yearly, a double tragedy for the 5.2 million Canadians classified as “food insecure.”

The project provides data to its partners, and accounting only for food they have distributed from Second Harvest, the Food Rescue Project has distributed $42,000 worth of food, amounting to 15,000 meals. 

“I hope in some small way, this growing program brings people peace of mind,” said Castle, “and for those who come who are not Catholic, that they still feel welcomed, and their presence is appreciated.”

“Everybody is welcome.”

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