THRIVE

Join the Rescue

Feed the Future

Our Story

In Fredericton, 1 out of every 10 people will visit Greener Village for assistance

Since 2021, Greener Village has witnessed an increase of 40% year on year in client demand

Providing 125,000 meals in approximately 2,100 grocery baskets per month

Each year there are over 58,000 visits for our services

rescuing food feeding community capital campaign design

People in NB are going hungry

Food insecurity in New Brunswick is a growing concern, worsened by crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, and ever increasing cost of living.

Greener Village has launched the THRIVE campaign, our solution to this growing but solvable problem.

Our goal is to build the first Perishable Food Rescue Centre in Atlantic Canada.

This initiative will not only address hunger but will also reduce food waste and provide more nutritional food options.

Our Solution

  • Increasing our food production
  • Diverting healthy, quality food from landfills
  • Expanding warehouse facilities
  • Enhancing our learning kitchen
  • Developing our food production capacity
  • Transforming perishable food into fresh frozen servings for distribution
  • Leveraging our food purchasing power to support dozens of non-profit food organizations
  • Program expansion in areas like food safety training, commercial food processing, and education on the seed-to-consumption cycle

How am I going to feed my family today?

  • A story about Nora
  • A story about Malik
  • A story about Lydia
rescuing food feeding community capital campaign design

Meeting the challenge

Our Society is facing a conundrum. As food prices soar to historic highs, the amount of food waste is also rising.

From farms to supermarkets, tons of perfectly good, nutritious food gets thrown out daily. Yet, people like Nora and her children, Malik and his immigrant parents, and Lydia continue to go hungry.

Families are left to skip meals. Seniors can’t afford groceries. Children are left without adequate nutrition. Adults who experience food insecurity are more likely to develop chronic conditions, like diabetes and depression.

Hungry children and adolescents are more likely to have behavioural issues and experience difficulty with memory and learning, affecting school results. This leads to social exclusion, adds barriers to living a full life, and spirals into huge costs for society.

The challenges surrounding fresh food in the province’s Food Bank Network are related to space, waste, distribution capacity and availability.

The Food Rescue Centre will address all these challenges not only for Greener Village’s Fredericton Food Bank, but for the other 11 food banks in the Greater Fredericton Area and throughout New Brunswick.

“Despite our diligent efforts, more and more people are hungry every year. In New Brunswick, we are reaching a tipping point, and we need to urgently look at different ways to meet the immediate need and reduce the ongoing need. By connecting with local agriculture and business, we will change how the food bank network relates to the food it requires to help people. Our transformative project is leading the way on this important topic all across our region and Canada.”

Alex Boyd

CEO of Greener Village

“Despite our diligent efforts, more and more people are hungry every year. In New Brunswick, we are reaching a tipping point, and we need to urgently look at different ways to meet the immediate need and reduce the ongoing need. By connecting with local agriculture and business, we will change how the food bank network relates to the food it requires to help people. Our transformative project is leading the way on this important topic all across our region and Canada.”

Alex Boyd

CEO of Greener Village

Growing our capacity to feed more people.

This facility, the first of its kind in Atlantic Canada, will receive, recover, and distribute fresh foods that are destined for waste to increase our capacity to feed the 25.6% of New Brunswickers who are experiencing food insecurity.

Our aim is to get at least 60% fresh food in each hamper.

The THRIVE campaign will allow us to create $4 million in food each year; for every $1 spent, we will create and preserve $5 to $11 of value-added, freezer-stable food items for redistribution to over 70 food focused organizations through Food Depot Alimentaire’s (FDA) network.

These organizations include homeless shelters, community kitchens, and school nutrition programs.

In addition, it will help us divert thousands of pounds of food from landfill.

“Thriving Communities start with individuals committed to making a difference.  Leading the Thrive Campaign was a natural choice for me – it’s about fostering resilience, igniting hope, and building a future where everyone has enought to eat, and the opportunity to flourish.”

Blair Hyslop

Campaign Chair

“Thriving Communities start with individuals committed to making a difference.  Leading the Thrive Campaign was a natural choice for me – it’s about fostering resilience, igniting hope, and building a future where everyone has enought to eat, and the opportunity to flourish.”

Blair Hyslop

Campaign Chair

The Food Rescue Centre will work with local farmers and producers to collect and process a large amount of food during harvest time in New Brunswick.

This will help extend the food’s shelf life for distribution to food banks and non-profits during winter.

The initiative will also promote increased agricultural production and reduce food waste in the area.

With the support of our community, we can make sustainable, impactful changes province-wide.

“Food Banks Canada is honoured to support Greener Village with such an innovative and impactful project. Our vision is for a Canada where no one goes hungry, and this means helping food banks and their communities with influential projects like this in Atlantic Canada.  Thank you, Greener Village, for your leadership in recognizing the need and creating a unique and truly transformative project at a critical time; we are proud to be your partner.”

Kristin Beardsley

CEO of Food Banks Canada

“Food Banks Canada is honoured to support Greener Village with such an innovative and impactful project. Our vision is for a Canada where no one goes hungry, and this means helping food banks and their communities with influential projects like this in Atlantic Canada.  Thank you, Greener Village, for your leadership in recognizing the need and creating a unique and truly transformative project at a critical time; we are proud to be your partner.”

Kristin Beardsley

CEO of Food Banks Canada

The Cost to Build the Food Rescue Centre

Greener Village’s purpose-built food rescue facility will be more than just a building.

It will mean we can accept more perishable foods and process them into freezer stable or shelf-stable products. It will mean reducing food waste across the province.

It will mean increasing food security for thousands of New Brunswick families.

The THRIVE campaign is an opportunity to provide one-time capital funding for health and social services with long-term impact on the environment, the economy and everyone who is struggling to afford and access healthy food.

Helping families THRIVE is an expensive proposition, but a critical one.

The total cost to build the
Greener Village Food Rescue Centre is
$8 million.

The total cost to build the
Greener Village Food Rescue Centre is
$6.3 million.

Frequently Asked Questions

New Brunswick is confronted with a pressing food dilemma. Ironically, as food prices reach unprecedented levels, the rate of food waste is also rising. Meanwhile, 25.6% of New Brunswickers are reporting food insecurity in 2024, up from 22.7% in 2023 – the second highest rate in the country – and urgently calling upon support organizations, like Greener Village, for help to feed their families. Each year, we have over 42,000 visits to our services and support 5,000 people every month from the Greater Fredericton area alone. With more and more people having to choose between paying rent or buying groceries, the demand for our services has soared 70% in recent years; the largest and most rapid increase in demand in our 40-year history.

But we are now at a critical juncture in how we operate. Sadly, the current size and scope of our facilities do not allow us to keep up with the increasing demand for our services. With rising costs, these numbers will only continue to grow…while millions of pounds of food are wasted in our province each year.

We need to reimagine how our food system flows, and consider creative ways to grow our food resources and address the food waste that is rising province-wide. By rescuing perfectly good food that would otherwise end up in the landfill, we are using it to nourish our neighbours and reduce the impact of climate change. All of this and more will be possible with the creation of the PFRC.

Through our partnerships with Food Banks Canada and Food Depot Alimentaire, our project will will have a measurable, lasting, impact on New Brunswickers well-being.

  • It will Increase our capacity to feed more people in need, expand warehouse space, support food banks in the province and grow community health programs and make an immediate and measurable difference in community hunger and resilience.
  • It will enable us to receive, recover, and transform food destined for waste, and reintroduce $4 million in fresh, and fresh-frozen food each year to 70 food-focused charities across the province each year.

Perhaps most importantly, it will serve as the proof of concept, and replicable model, for neighbouring provinces like Nova Scotia and PEI, who are experiencing similar food insecurity crises.

We conducted an in-depth Feasibility study in 2021 which addressed both the needs and expectations of the philanthropic community. The results supported the current plan and a campaign to reach this goal. We have been on track throughout the campaign and have raised a significant portion of our goal to date.

We are blessed with significant support from the community and we have received gifts from individuals, corporations and foundations. We started our campaign with 100% financial support from our Board of Directors and staff. Our campaign received a huge boost from the McCain Foundation and Food Banks Canada. Their gifts totalled $1.25 million.

100% of your donation goes toward Thrive Capital Campaign, which will enable us to build, remodel, and outfit of the new Thrive Centre. By the end of the Capital Campaign, we will have built the Perishable Food Rescue Centre, furnished our state-of-the-art transformation kitchen, renovated our existing spaces to enhance service delivery, and expanded our social programs.

Yes. The Thrive Food Rescue Centre is a project that will be built by the community for the community. Every dollar matters and every contribution – no matter the size – will go a long way in making our vision a reality.

To make a gift to the campaign or to learn more, please contact Erin Pelerine, our Director of Development & Communications, by phone at 506.478.3821 or email giving@greenervillage.ca. You can also visit the campaign donation page to donate online.

Pledged campaign gifts can be paid over a one-to-five-year period.

Yes.  Greener Village is a registered charity (CRN: 133080960RR0001).  Donations to the campaign over $20 will receive a charitable gift receipt for income tax purposes.  Tax receipts will be issued once the gift is made/realized.

We recognize the urgent need for this facility in our network and are diligently working to begin construction as early as possible.  We continue to aim for a late fall construction start.

Millions of Pounds of Food Wasted Here At Home

Food wastage is a significant problem in Canada. According to Second Harvest, Canada’s largest food rescue organization, 58% of food produced in Canada is not eaten. 32% of that food can be rescued, which is enough food to feed every Canadian for five months.

In Atlantic Canada, 457,138,000 pounds of food are estimated to be available for rescue.

Think about it: All of the imperfect and bumpy vegetables that are perfectly healthy but don’t make it to the shelves because they aren’t “pretty enough.”

All the thrown-out produce within best before dates could be rescued, flash frozen, and transformed into stable, healthy food.

All past due perishable food that we currently throw away can be composted and used for animal feed, fertilizer, and gardening.

Think of all that food, rescued and repurposed!

In 2023 Alone, Greener Village had…

Greener Village owns the 13.3 acre property at 686 Riverside Drive in Fredericton. It currently houses a 10,500 square foot building with a large area that is now cleared and ready for construction. Our plan is to refurbish the existing infrastructure and expand our physical footprint.

With Your Support, the Food Rescue Centre will help all of New Brunswick THRIVE

We’ll be able to work with more farmers and food producers to rescue good food from being wasted. Thousands of tons of food that would otherwise be thrown out will instead be recovered and transformed into nutritious meals for our community.

From a skill-building perspective, our enhanced learning kitchen will provide cooking classes, training opportunities, as well as work experience for individuals seeking to enter the production and foodservice industries. These experiences will help people earn an income to support themselves and their loved ones.
Your donation to this innovative and bold project provides us with an opportunity to rescue food and feed community. Through your generosity you will provide people with an answer to the question, “How am I going to feed myself and my family today?”

You will help Nora put food on the table for their children.
You will help Malik afford medicine and food for his immigrant parents.
You will help Lydia access an alternative source for healthy food options.

Cabinet Members

Blair Hyslop
Campaign Chair

Co-owner and CEO, Mrs. Dunster’s

Kerry Wells

President, The Ginger Agency

Nick Norrad

Spacek Armstrong & Norrad Chartered Accountants

Candace Sears

KPMG Canada

Andrew Bedford

Co-CEO, The Hartt Shoe Company & The Ginger Agency

Cameron Clark

Clark Financial Advisory Group

Alex Scholten

President, Victory Meat & Produce Market

Kerry Atkinson

VP Operations & Resources, Wilson Insurance Ltd.