Saultites interested in buying a fresh frozen meal to take home, heat up and enjoy now have a new option: Meals by Harvest, run by Harvest Algoma.
“Because we were already making frozen oven-ready meals for the men's shelter, we decided we can make a nice little storefront here at the Harvest Algoma warehouse,” said Lauren Moran, Harvest Algoma’s community enterprise manager, in an interview with SooToday.
Meals by Harvest, open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday, is located at the Harvest Algoma depot at 446 Second Line E.
The entrance is located on the east side of the building.
“It’s open for anyone from the public who wants to come in and make a purchase. We offer all kinds of meals. We have some microwave-friendly options and desserts as well,” Moran said.
A visit by SooToday to Meals by Harvest on Tuesday showed a freezer stocked with lasagna, cabbage rolls with vegetables, perogies, turkey casserole, shepherd's pie, meat loaf, macaroni and cheese, beef stew, beef barley soup, bread and pumpkin loaf.
Outside the freezer, Meals by Harvest also has items from local vendors for sale including pickled beets, garlic butter croutons, maple syrup, honey, organic strawberry spread and soft maple sugar candies.
About 80 per cent of the freezer’s meals consist of rescued food from local vendors Rome's and the Sault’s two Food Basics locations.
The food from Rome's and Food Basics is donated.
The food is picked up by volunteers in vans. It is then prepared by Ron Black - Harvest Algoma’s chef - in the facility’s kitchen, and stocked in Meals by Harvest’s freezer for sale.
“It’s food that would otherwise get thrown out - because it has reached its ‘best before’ date - but it's totally safe to eat. We turn that into meals and then anybody who wants to can come and make a purchase and support our programming that way,” Moran said.
'Best before date’ does not mean food goes stale on that date.
“Often it's misinterpreted. It's not stale. Maybe it would be slightly better before that date, but it's still perfectly safe to consume afterwards, especially when it comes to non-perishable items like canned goods and pasta," she said.
Grocery stores will put those items in their freezers so that nothing is actually spoiling.
"So it’s not even reaching past the best before date before it's being frozen. And then we pick it all up, sort it and keep it frozen. It’s nice to have this food in our storefront. A lot of it isn't available at retail locations regularly or it's only available at the farmers’ market once a week.”
Funds raised from sales of the frozen dinners go straight back into Harvest Algoma’s ongoing mission to address food insecurity in Sault Ste. Marie.
“It’s used to pay our staff, our utility fees, for anything around the building that might need to be repaired. We can use that revenue to essentially put it towards whatever we need to make sure that our programs are staying successful,” Moran said.
Meals by Harvest is a social enterprise.
“A social enterprise is any business activity where the profits are directly reinvested back into an organization's social mission. Our social mission is to feed the community here in Algoma and to rescue as much food as possible in order to be able to do that. Meals by Harvest plays to our strengths as we think about different business activities we could use to generate revenue for our programming,” Moran said.
Harvest Algoma volunteers assist chef Ron Black prepare meals for sale by Meals by Harvest, as well as free meals for the men’s shelter.
“He delegates our team of volunteers. He has a list of who's coming in on each day and he'll say ‘I need someone to peel a whole bunch of carrots, I need someone to peel potatoes.’ He makes his list of what needs to be done in a day and then he just delegates those tasks out as our volunteers come in,” Moran said.
Moran praised Black’s ability to work with what types of food are sold to Meals by Harvest by local vendors.
“He takes a look at whatever we've got available. Then he says, ‘okay, so I guess we're making a bunch of ribs today. I guess we're doing sweet and sour chicken. We're going to cut up all the bagged fries that we get.’ He's been doing great work for the men's shelter for a couple of years now.”
Financial donations from the public - to enable Harvest Algoma to continue their mission to combat local food insecurity - are vital and always welcome, Moran said.
Information on Harvest Algoma - including how to donate to its cause - is available on the organization's website.
“Whether it's $5, $25, $500, everything makes a difference,” Moran said.
Those at Harvest Algoma deeply appreciate Algoma Steel’s 2023 commitment of $120,000 to the organization over three years.
“We're always incredibly grateful for anything that comes from folks from the community. We have fundraising events like a seedling sale in the springtime. We had our Easter bread sale. We’re cooking up a couple of different, new fundraising events that we're going to be doing this year,” Moran said.
Meals by Harvest launched in September 2024. They also have a second location at Country Way Health Food Store on Brock Street.
“We have definitely had a great reception from the community. We've gotten really good feedback,” Moran said.
