With inflation and the rising cost of living, more and more people in Fredericton and across New Brunswick are going hungry these days. In fact, 1 in 10 Frederictonians use our food bank and almost 20% of New Brunswickers worry about putting food on the table. At Greener Village alone, we have had 40% more people reach out to us needing help.

Beyond those statistics there are stories. Stories of our 4000 clients who receive food hampers every month. Stories of the working poor, newcomers, and seniors who are not able to make ends meet. Stories of people who have to choose between food and medication, food and rent, food and bills.

At the same time 457,138,000 pounds of food goes to waste yearly in Atlantic Canada, and 58% of the food produced across the country ends up in landfills.

Greener Village has a bold, exciting plan to move beyond short term bandaids and help to solve both problems – hunger and food waste – with a Food Rescue Centre that will receive perfectly healthy, “ugly” produce on its way to a landfill and transform it into processed or fresh-frozen nutrient-rich food for our clients.

We are thinking big! We own the 13.3 acre property at 686 Riverside Drive in Fredericton, where our Community Centre lives – including our food bank operation, learning kitchen, community gardens, and Unique Boutique thrift shop. Our plan is to construct a 6,500 square foot building including a 3,400 square foot warehouse to receive and process rescued food until it can be transformed and distributed to families across the province through the Food Bank Network.

This project will allow us to serve more people, increase the nutritional value in each of our food hampers, create learning opportunities, and grow our community gardens and greenhouse operations.

Together, we can make a real difference in the lives of our clients, the physical and mental health of the most vulnerable in our community, and the environment we all share by reducing food waste and ensuring that everyone has access to nutritious food.

For more information, please email giving@greenervillage.ca