Chef Jagger Gordon

Canada's Pay-What-You-Can Grocery Store

A chef from Canada has been using his means to save and combat the country's food waste problem.

Meet Chef Jagger Gordon, founder of the popular "Feed It Forward", opened up Toronto's first Pay-What-You-Can grocery store in the city's Junction neighborhood. 

This unique grocery store will be open seven days a week. 

Pay-What-You-Can grocery store created by Chef Gordon.

The Chef's mission? "A rescue food system where we utilize the ugly fruits and vegetables and the blemished food that seems to be ending up in our landfills continuously."

Each year in Canada, $31 billion worth of food ends up in landfills. 

Pay-what-you-can grocery opens in Toronto.

In some parts of Europe, banning food waste is already their norm. In 2016, France banned food waste, forcing supermarkets to sign agreements with charities so no edible food ends up in the trash. Italy, meanwhile, offers tax breaks when businesses donate leftovers. 

"It's the saddest thing," Chef Gordon said. 

As a food caterer, Gordon first came up with the idea of putting less than picture-perfect produce to good use in 2014. Sick of finding that so much good food was headed for the garbage, he decided he'd start packaging and freezing it.

Chef Gordon is the founder of Feed It Forward.

Last year, he put the model to the test with a pay-what-you-can restaurant.

Finding the "not so perfect" food isn't difficult, he says. Every day, in grocery stores, food terminals, and restaurants, they discard plenty of edible products. Gordon says he "rescues" around 225 to 450 kilograms every day.

Chef explained why chooses to put up the grocery store in the junction - "while parts of the neighborhood are "property-rich," many in the less affluent areas struggle to pay their rent, shelter areas going up in the neighborhood's margins, along with several single families." 

He wanted to help those who are "underprivileged consumers".

Toronto pop-up charges little — or nothing at all — for meals.

"If you have to pay for that house or that apartment and you can't afford a healthier lifestyle because of it, well now you don't have to worry about that," Gordon added.

"Watching the children's faces, knowing the children are getting fed, that single families are getting fed, that's the most joyful thing," he said.

“If you knew what I know about the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way.”

- Buddha