Our project emerged from the City of Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Plan, making Vancouver the greenest city in the world by 2020. This movement is an effort to prepare the city for population growth and the effects of climate change while keeping Vancouver’s lively economy and beautiful quality of life. With many goals to be reached, such as eliminating dependence on fossil fuels, increase green building design, increase green forms of transportation, clean water and air, our project is a small step towards a city with zero waste. They have identified reducing our food waste, after purchase, by 50% as one of the 5 key changes that would most help Vancouver consumers lighten up. The City of Vancouver is fully aware that there is an abundance of food being discarded throughout the city, yet there is also an abundance of Vancouver citizens going hungry or unable to access a sufficient amount of nutritious food. We understand that there is a large gap in the system when it comes to food waste and recovery. What we do not yet understand, is the map of this gap. We will be working with City Studio and the City of Vancouver to create this map by exploring the current food recovery industry.

City Studio is an organization that gives learning and job opportunities to students. They allow students to research, design, and implement projects that will bring the City of Vancouver closer to their Greenest City goal. Students then have the opportunity to develop their leadership, teamwork and networking skills.