The Bat Signal goes off at 11:52 on a Friday: rescue needed. Superhero and sidekick drop the Nintendo controllers and swing into action, donning protective gear and grabbing the keys to the Batmobile. Well, a makeshift Batmobile. Okay, it’s a Kia minivan, which is a more sensible option for the mission at hand. And Sidekick and I are in raincoats rather than masks and capes, because this is Vancouver, not Gotham.
But if I’m a sort of dad-bod Adam West and my young apprentice currently has quite a lot of jam on her face, we are at least on the type of mission that lets you feel like a superhero. The Bat Signal in this case is actually an app, the rescue is dozens of boxes of fresh produce, and the crimes being thwarted are the twin evils of waste and want.
Vancouver Food Runners was founded by Tristan Jagger in March 2020, when she was home-schooling three kids during the pandemic, with another on the way. The app connects volunteers to people and organizations donating food and the nonprofits who need to receive it. The early days were tricky, with Jagger manually matching donors and charities, but it was the right idea at the right time, and it has since taken off.
The organization is about to celebrate its fifth anniversary with some impressive figures. Over the years, volunteers have shifted over two million kilograms of food that would otherwise have gone to waste, running ingredients to nonprofits in need. That represents more than four million meals that would otherwise not have existed. Thanks to this volunteer network, vulnerable people in the Lower Mainland are that little bit safer.
Back to the Bat-Kia, which has had its seven-passenger layout converted for maximum cargo-carrying capacity. (Can the Wayne Enterprises Tumbler pull the same trick? I think not. That thing probably doesn’t even have proper cupholders.) Monday to Thursday, this Kia Carnival carried six boisterous kids from four families on the weekly carpool. Friday being a day off from school, all that capacity was just sitting around waiting to be put to good use.
Part of the reason for Vancouver Food Runners’ success has to do with the way the landscape of our roads has changed. A little over a decade ago, the bestselling passenger vehicle in Canada was the modestly sized Honda Civic sedan. Today, it is the Toyota RAV4. Crossovers are the choice of most families these days, because they drive just as comfortably as a sedan but offer greater capacity for edge cases. You might not need all that extra space for your grade-schooler and her backpack, but cramming in everything needed for annual family camping trips takes a bit more space.
Jagger first recognized that there was plenty of downtime between shuttling kids to and from activities, and her weekly routes took her all over the city. She figured she wasn’t the only one who had space to spare and was looking to pitch in and help.
Harnessing all this unused capacity out there is made possible by the aforementioned app, which is based on technology developed by Food Rescue Hero, a software company based in the U.S. It’s as simple as anything to use, alerting users to one-off pickups or tracking regular food runs.
If you’ve got a weekly dance-class drop-off near a bakery that freezes its extras, then the app will let you setup a continuing pick-up there with a drop-off nearby. Instead of waiting around for your kid to be done, scrolling through social media, you get the dopamine hit of having spread a little actual good into the world as part of your day.
In this case, my trusty sidekick and I are solving a one-time problem on short notice. A local grocer accidentally overstocked, and pickups are needed at a few locations around the lower mainland. The app shows the approximate size of the donation, indicates what size of vehicle is appropriate, and then provides a time frame for pickup and navigation directions that take us right to the door.
Traffic’s a little better than expected, so we stop off at a local doughnut place for a treat to be saved for when the good deed is done. The app has you click through when arriving, and it then provides contact information and any special directions. In this case, no extra legwork is required, and we’re soon ready to hit the road again, the Kia packed with all manner of fresh produce.
Again, navigation instructions are provided right through the app, and the charity we’ve been matched with is just a short drive away. All told, the food rescue takes under an hour, easily accomplished in the space of a piano lesson or similar. This task was a larger one, but you can also string together several smaller ones over the course of an afternoon, and plenty of the one-off rescues show up on the app with several days’ notice, so you can plan them into your week.
The best part is that this is a direct action, and it puts you in touch with people who are invariably happy to see you. Donors are delighted not to be throwing away perfectly good food and are thankful that it’s going to those who need it most. People at charitable organizations are working on the front lines, and they see the immediate impact that these donations make—they’re thankful to see you roll up.
The app helpfully tracks the impact of Vancouver Food Runners as a whole, but it also keeps track of your individual stats. Especially for busy families, it can be hard to find a regular time to volunteer. Participation here lets you accomplish something good in small steps, on a case-by-case basis, and then tally how you’ve managed to help out this month.
Our single food rescue is estimated to provide a little over 400 meals. At this time of year, when food banks and other charities generally report an ebb in donations, it’s perhaps just a drop in the bucket. But that’s how you fill a bucket: with drops.
If you’d like your own chance to feel like a superhero—with all due deference to Samuel L. Jackson’s Marvel character Nick Fury—Vancouver Food Runners is looking to put together a team. Suit up, get your transportation ready, and be prepared to answer the call. Heroes wanted. No Batmobile required.
