The national body representing Canada’s food banks has picked up over $850,000 in federal funding for programming to help improve food safety at food bank facilities.
“When volunteers sign up to help out at a food bank, they need the right training and equipment, and this investment will make sure those resources are available,” federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in a release Friday.
Food Banks Canada, the charitable organization representing the food bank community across Canada, is to use the funding to develop training materials and workshops.
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It’s also expected to go to “better equip” regional trainers to work with food banks in their communities to ensure local-level volunteers follow “strong food safety practices.”
“This funding will help us develop the resources to assist food banks in their ability to provide safe quality food to Canadians in communities across the country,” Katharine Schmidt, executive director for the Toronto-based organization, said in the government’s release.
The national organization has had a Safe Food Handling program in place since 2006, billed as “a comprehensive program to assist our members and affiliate members in becoming educated on safe methods of handling and moving food through our supply chain.”
The standards developed for the program “can be implemented easily and quickly and can dramatically improve our members and affiliate members’ ability to distribute food safely,” the organization says on its website, noting its program has been tested in several food banks across the country.
The federal support, coming from the Growing Forward ag policy funding framework, will flow through the Canadian Integrated Food Safety Initiative, set up to back the development of national government-recognized food safety systems.
