The gusts ruffled the hair of Christiane Emond, a volunteer for a year for the non-profit organization Green Pirates. Despite the wind and the grayness of December, she is at her post on rue Dézéry, near rue Adam, in Montreal. Cement bollards provided by the borough mark out a space along the street, where tables and a freezer are aligned. Like every Tuesday and Friday for six years, the Green Pirates distribute surplus food recovered … from food banks.
They thus feed between 200 and 300 people per week.
Canada is one of the countries with the highest rate of food waste, according to the most recent report from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). In 2019, three million tonnes of food ended up in the trash. That’s the equivalent of the weight of nearly 94,000 large garbage trucks!
With 79 kilograms of food thrown away per capita, Canadians even surpass Americans. However, a large part of the waste takes place long before, that is, all along the agrifood chain, from cultivation to processing.
Raïs Zaidi, fifty-something bearded with long hair dreadlocks, has made food recovery a mission. An event technician, former manager of the legendary Café Chaos on rue Saint-Denis and a trained cook, he began his project to feed the most disadvantaged from food collected at Occupons Montréal, in 2011.
It was in 2016, with his own car and on a completely voluntary basis, that he began to distribute in front of his home the surpluses from his waste collection (still edible food thrown away by grocery stores). He has since rallied an entire neighborhood.
Recover the food already collected
In Montreal, the Moisson Montreal organization collects unsold food from wholesalers and supermarkets for redistribution. In 2018, the organization avoided throwing away 1.2 million kilograms of food to donate it to 250 Montreal community organizations.
However, food banks are often only open a few days a week. Food that cannot find a taker sometimes ends up … in the compost. This is where the Green Pirate comes in. “About five years ago, I had my first contact with a bank [alimentaire] in Verdun. A member contacted me to tell me that they were putting lots of food in the compost, and he was trying to convince them to give it to me, ”explains Raïs Zaidi.
Since then, other food banks in Anjou and Montreal-North have started giving their leftovers to Mr. Zaidi. ” We [en] also picks up, from time to time, in some grocery stores, businesses and at events. Every week we receive calls from the world asking if we can go and get leftovers or surpluses, ”says Raïs Zaidi.
Distribution is done directly in rue Dézéry, in front of Mr. Zaidi’s apartment, twice a week. The queue can extend to rue Adam on the busiest days, Christiane Emond is surprised.
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PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
The distribution takes place twice a week in rue Dézéry, in front of Mr. Zaidi’s apartment.
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PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
Each person can leave with two grocery bags of food.
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PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
On December 14, the group distributed more than 3,300 kg of food.
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PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
The queue is long on the biggest distribution days.
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Each person can leave with two grocery bags of food, until everything is distributed. Recently, people can also donate a few dollars, if they wish, to help pay for gasoline.
We don’t ask for anything, no proof [de revenu]. If people want to wait 45 minutes in the cold outside, that’s no luxury. It’s because they need it.
Rais Zaidi
In a single day, on December 14, the group distributed more than 3,300 kg of food – the equivalent of the weight of 16 refrigerators.
A bandage, not a solution
Giving back unsold items, however, does not solve the problem of food waste, says Zaidi. “We are not a solution. We are the last step, the last net before it falls into the containers [à déchets]. ”
A vision shared by Éric Ménard, researcher specializing in food waste. “Food banks are a dressing on waste and poverty,” he said. Solutions must be found much more internally [du secteur agroalimentaire], because waste is quite intrinsic to the business model of big companies. ”
After several years working in the shadows, Raïs Zaidi is starting to be better known in his neighborhood. Liberal MP for Hochelaga, Soraya Martinez Ferrada, publicly thanked him during a speech in the House of Commons on December 15.
Already, last September, Raïs Zaidi had also received the medal of the National Assembly of Quebec. “For your stubbornness in the local distribution of food and for your involvement in the food security of the district”, indicated the member of Quebec solidaire in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Alexandre Leduc.
Raïs Zaidi’s dream: to have premises to create a real community center based on food and urban agriculture. In Montreal, “there is no system to recover small businesses,” notes the Green Pirate. We are missing another actor, a baby Moisson Montreal, for small businesses. I would like to fill this role, eventually. ”