Retail Food Program

Gathering surplus food to share with people in need

bunches of red beets and coloured carrots

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This gleaned/rescued food includes fresh vegetables and fruit, baked goods, dairy, non-perishables, and frozen meats.

Edmonton's Food Bank adheres to the food safety guidelines of Alberta Health Services when collecting and distributing food. Our trucks are refrigerated to keep food at the proper temperature during transport, which is very important on hot summer days! Once at the Food Bank, food is placed into industrial coolers and freezers until it is needed.

How it works

Divert food waste

Edmonton's Food Bank collects surplus food from retail partners, including produce, meat, dairy, baked goods, and packaged items, that would otherwise go to waste. Food is collected on a regular route and inspected before redistribution. Donors include major grocery stores, independent grocers, specialty food retailers, warehouses, local gardens, and farmers

download food donation guidelines

Build community relationships

Participating in the Retail Food Program connects your business to the Edmonton community in a concrete and tangible way. Edible food you'd otherwise discard goes directly to neighbours in need. Your staff see the impact firsthand and your customers see a business that takes its community role seriously

Meet your CSR and sustainability goals

The Retail Food Program helps retailers reduce waste, meet environmental targets, and fulfill corporate social responsibility commitments. We handle the pickup, sorting, and redistribution; you provide the food

Our retail food donors

Our work is possible thanks to the commitment of many food donors helping us along the way

To glean means to salvage or rescue food

While our common name is Edmonton’s Food Bank, we were incorporated as the Edmonton Gleaners Association. Essentially named after our original mandate, we continue to collect surplus food from across the food industry to feed our community.

Our Retail Food Program works with grocery stores, retailers, warehouses, and farmers to redirect edible yet not marketable food.
These items include freezing meat before the best-before dates, products with exterior packaging damage, seasonal overstock, over shipment, and/or over production. We follow AHS guidelines and inspect, sort, and then redistribute it through hampers and agency partners.

By the numbers

Edmonton

Retail food donors provide

~60 %

of all the food shared from Edmonton's Food Bank warehouses

In 2025 alone,

We salvaged

~3 Million kg

of food that would have otherwise gone to waste. Instead, this food is being shared with our neighbours in need

In a single year

Our fleet travelled

244,368 KM

picking up and distributing food; that’s equivalent to travelling the entire Trans-Canada highway, west to east, 31 times!