Sault food hub app aims to help food banks across Canada reduce waste

A Sault Ste. Marie-made app is slashing admin work for Harvest Algoma, tracking nearly 500,000 lbs. of rescued food this year. Cory Nordstrom explains.

A new app developed in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is streamlining operations at a regional food resource centre with the goal of eventually helping food banks across the country.

The Harvest Food Hub App, created by the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre, is being used by Harvest Algoma to track the flow of food in and out of its warehouse. The process is designed to improve communication and accuracy while taking staff less than 30 seconds to complete.

Tracking a half-million pounds

The app tracks the weight of food and which agency it comes from or goes to. Officials say it has already recorded significant data this year.

“So far this year, the app has recorded nearly half a million pounds of food rescued by Harvest Algoma and over 400-thousand pounds that’s gone to local food banks and community agencies,” said Celia Ross, Harvest Algoma’s board chair.

The project was funded by a $100,000 grant from the province in 2023.

David Thompson, Director of the Rural Agri-Innovation Network and Vice President of the Sault Innovation Centre, explained to CTV News that the app’s purpose is to reduce paperwork for staff.

“There’s a big administrative burden by writing down how many pounds of food, different organizations are taking. How many people that serving?” Thompson said.

“So with more time freed up, they’re able to focus on the core operations of Harvest Algoma, which is bringing food in, getting it out, to people in need as, as quickly as we can.”

Multi-purpose mission

Ross detailed to CTV News how the rescued food is distributed, noting the organization must raise funds to sustain its operations.

“The food that we rescue goes both out to agencies that distribute it. Some of it goes into our kitchen to make the goods that we sell for a bit of a profit and some of it goes to feed animals and all of that’s good,” Ross said.

“Harvest Algoma is running a business, right? We are, having entrepreneurial efforts to raise money to pay our hydro bills and to keep our, our wonderful, warehouse and kitchen open.”

Ross also expressed a desire for national recognition of their work.

“I think Canadians need to know that we’re doing this and need to be proud of us doing this. There’s too much hunger to have food going to waste,” she said.

National ambitions

The Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre and Harvest Algoma are hosting a webinar on Dec. 9 to demonstrate the Harvest Food Hub App to other organizations. There is hope the system could be adopted by food banks and resource centres across Canada, potentially generating additional revenue for Harvest Algoma.

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