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RESEARCH & More

At Second Harvest, we dive deep into food waste research because we know it's key to cooking up a sustainable future.

In understanding the problem, we're halfway to the solution.

Our research has caught the eye of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Canadian government, and other like-minded organizations. It’s also been featured in reputable news outlets like Forbes, Courrier International, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, CBC and CTV.

The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste: Update

The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste: Update, is a follow-up to Second Harvest’s groundbreaking research published in 2019 that quantified food waste in Canada by examining the entire value chain.

View The Roadmap

Wasted Opportunity

Featuring ground-breaking research into Canada’s food system, Wasted Opportunity explores what foods end up in landfills and why so much of this surplus edible food is not being rescued.

Research Report

Canada’s Invisible Food Network

Canada’s Invisible Food Network research addresses an urgent question: Who is helping to provide food for the millions of Canadians struggling with food insecurity?

View Report

The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste 2019

The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste is Canada’s first national research study on food waste and the first of its kind in the world to use primary data from the food industry.

Read Report

Data drives decision-making

At Second Harvest, we rely on accurate data to help us make informed decisions in everything we do.

In addition to our ground-breaking research, we leverage data to measure our impact.

We’ve developed a unique greenhouse gas calculator to determine the environmental impact of the food we rescue, our dollar value calculator puts a financial value on rescued food and our meal calculator outlines how many meals can be created per pound of rescued food. Our annual surveys and ongoing analytics reflect our data-driven approach to reporting.

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