At Harvest Bowl, we ensure that no food goes to waste! Instead, we transform fresh fruits and vegetables into dried food packages that support food banks and shelters across London, St. Thomas, Elgin, Oxford, and Middlesex counties.
The Harvest Bowl originated from a desire among local farmers to find a way to reuse the tons of produce that goes to waste in their fields. This led us to partner with more than 10 agencies to provide a shelf-stable, healthy food option.
Through this amazing program, our local food producers take advantage of the opportunity to eliminate food waste in their fields rather than till under, giving this program the ability to provide fresh and healthy meal options.
Our church and service clubs from the community support us by giving their time. During Harvest time, these groups are given chance to volunteer and help out with the ‘gleaning’ process. High school students can earn volunteer hours.
At Harvest Bowl, we’re proud to be actively working towards reducing the amount of food that goes to waste daily while addressing the increasing challenge of food insecurity in our community. We use a process known as “gleaning” to gather excess fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste and turn them into delicious, nutritious, dehydrated soup mixes. A nutritionist makes the soup mix recipes, while the University of Guelph helped us create the packages’ labels. It was a win-win for everyone involved!
“Our clients enjoy the many different soup kits, dried apple slices and best of all the apple crisp! They are quick, easy, delicious and nutritious meals for our clients to prepare.
We at the Corner Cupboard Food Bank in Aylmer look forward to working with and receiving future projects of the Harvest Bowl.
Keep up the great work” ~ Liz McConnell Manager Alymer Corner Cubboard.
Harvest Bowl plays a vital role in the community by helping to provide a safety net for those experiencing food insecurity.