A message to the community.

Sometimes "sharing" isn't a good thing.

Thanks in advance, for allowing the advertising of our program to be done by our team. We make sure our community partners are aware when we have a surplus, and additional food that is not collected is given to local organizations helping those in need on a daily basis. We are a small group of volunteers, and our target demographic is the artistic and co-operative community.

We appreciate that you are eager to help us achieve our mission!

Unfortunately, sharing our information on social media, creates significant resource challenges when suddenly there are hundreds of unexpected new clients, few of whom follow the proper procedures the first time ordering.

Historically, when our site is shared socially, it results in excessive food waste, as a large number of people order food, but they don't understand our procedures. This removes the food from the system and results in a significant number of cancelled orders and a massive increase in food waste, and costs that we have to pay to then dispose of the food that was not picked up properly.

We also don't want to disappoint anyone, or have them waste valuable resources driving in to collect partial orders, as often, items that are held over a day, may not remain suitable the following day for pick up. Unlike a grocery store, we don't have easy substitutions, and there is no more "stock in the back". If we had one of something yesterday, and it's no longer edible today, then it has to be composted and it is removed from the order.

So thank you for wanting us to help achieve our mission to reduce food waste! The best way to help us achieve this is to volunteer with us, and help us build more local capacity in the systems in place.

If you have a specific client to refer, please send an email to foodrescue@canadianmusicians.coop and we will do our best to help them in a timely manner.

Thanks for your support and understanding!