The Guelph Food Bank has received a donation of thousands of pounds worth of beans from the University of Guelph, helping address food insecurity while reducing agricultural waste. “We took in over, I think, 5,600 lbs of beans, which is a ton of beans,” said Cameron Spence, chief development officer with the Guelph Food Bank. The donation is part of the university’s dry bean breeding program, which is working to develop new varieties of beans that are more resistant to disease and produce higher yields for farmers. Researchers grow thousands of bean plants as part of the program, but only a fraction are ultimately selected for further breeding. Of roughly 200,000 plants, about 8,000 are chosen to meet the program’s breeding criteria. However, that doesn’t mean the remaining beans are unsuitable for consumption. “It doesn’t mean that those that we are not selecting are the bad beans or not good. It simply means that they are not passing the breeding criteria that we are looking for,” said Mohsen Yoosefzadeh Najafabadi, an assistant professor in the university’s dry bean breeding program. Rather than let those beans go to waste, researchers began donating them to the Guelph Food Bank last year. This year’s donation was 15 to 20 per cent larger than the previous one, according to Yoosefzadeh Najafabadi. Volunteers are now working to clean, sort and package the beans before distributing them to people in need. The donation comes as the food bank serves between 4,700 and 5,200 people every month. Spence said beans can also provide an affordable alternative to more expensive sources of protein as grocery costs continue to rise. “With beef becoming more expensive, chicken becoming more expensive, they’re a great substitute for that,” he said. While researchers continue working toward developing what they call a “super bean,” the varieties that don’t make the cut are still making a difference in the community.
