Real Canadians: Combatting food insecurity one recovered restaurant meal at a time

Photo credit Victor Diaz Lamich.

Article content

Jean-François Archambault has never personally experienced food insecurity, but the Montreal pastry shop owner has been working for more than two decades to help Canadians who cannot afford or access enough nutritious food to meet their needs. In 2002, he founded La Tablée des Chefs, a non-profit organization primarily focused on food recovery in the hospitality sector. The inspiration for the organization began with a cooking class.

Article content

Article content

“My father was a lawyer for a chef’s organization and I grew up around chefs and cooks, so I was privileged,” explains Archambault. “I started thinking about food insecurity when I took a cooking class as part of hotel management studies in 1996. Students in the class prepared and cooked about 80 meal portions and then when class was done, we’d throw away half of the food that had been made. It seemed like such a senseless waste. Imagine what would happen if an architecture student built a wonderful bridge and then destroyed it once it was finished.”

Article content

Article content

Archambault worked in the hotel industry after graduating and held several positions at some of the top hotels in Montreal. Observing the food waste from banquets and hotel restaurants continued to bother him — especially when he knew there are people in Canada who struggle to get enough nutritious food to meet their needs.

Article content

When he talked to chefs and restaurant managers about redirecting unused food to people in need, they often expressed concerns about liability. What would happen if someone got food poisoning or claimed to have food poisoning? Would the restaurant be liable?

Article content

Article content

Other concerns included finding the time in a busy restaurant to organize the recovered food, figuring out how to store it so it would be safe and usable, and co-ordinating with a local community organization that could get the food to people who need it.

Article content

In Archambault’s search for a solution to food waste in the hospitality industry, he spoke to the minister of agriculture, representatives from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), leaders in the hospitality industry and leaders of large corporations before taking action. “My dad helped to organize the legal structure of La Tablée des Chefs as a not-for-profit organization,” he says. “We’ve made it as simple as possible for restaurants to participate, so kitchen staff can keep their primary focus on their customers. Restaurants freeze the food and label it with the ingredients and allergen information. We provide containers and find a local community-based organization to distribute the recovered food to people who need it.”

Article content

The program that began in Montreal has now grown to include locations right across Canada including restaurants as well as sports venues, convention centres and hotels. In 2005, in co-operation with the Montreal Canadiens, the program was implemented in the Bell Centre. During 42 season games, more than 100,000 meals that would have been discarded were recovered and sent to people in need.