Rising Grocery Costs for Brown Bagging for Calgary’s Kids (BB4CK)
In January 2021 after being let go from oil and gas, I volunteered with a community lunch program out of the Beddington Co-op. From January to June, we provided lunches to approximately 50 local school children per day across 6 schools, including the school my children attend. Our group prepared and delivered lunches on Mondays (to cover Monday and Tuesday, ~100 lunches in total), and a second group prepared and delivered lunches for the rest of the week. I am still a volunteer with the lunch program when my schedule allows.
“In Alberta, among households with children, 16.7% of Albertans under the age of 18 lived under the poverty threshold in 2018 — more than 160,000 CHILDREN. More specifically, to Calgary, 21% of Calgarians said they were struggling to buy food and groceries for themselves and their families.” (BB4CK)
BB4CK feeds 5,000 kids each week in Calgary between the downtown kitchen location and 24 community groups spread throughout Calgary. Lunches are all prepared by volunteers and funding for the program comes from corporations, local businesses, and individual donors. As an example of an individual donor, there was an older couple who shopped at the same time I did every Monday morning. Out of curiosity one morning they asked me what I was shopping for given the quantities I was buying, asking if it was for a dayhome or daycare. When I explained to them what I was shopping for (and I was wearing an identification badge) they were intrigued. I brought them more information the following week and answered some questions they had about the program. A few weeks later they let me know that they had been impressed with the program when they went home and researched it and had made a family donation to the program.
In 2020 amid shutdowns cause by the COVID-19 pandemic, community groups operating out of locations such as community centers were unable to operate, as the facilities themselves were deemed non-essential services. During that time, many children who usually received lunches at school did not. As part of BB4CK’s response to the pandemic, a grocery card program was initiated to help families with children learning at home to help alleviate that need. When school was resumed in person in the fall of 2020, there were still community groups unable to operate due to facility restrictions.
In January 2021 BB4CK, in partnership with Calgary Co-op, was able to have community groups working out of Alberta Health Services approved kitchens in the backs of selected Co-op grocery stores. This allowed the community groups to continue operating regardless of restrictions, as grocery stores are considered essential services. The space was provided at no charge, and discounted gift cards were made available to BB4CK. In exchange for the use of the kitchen, the community groups are required to purchase the groceries for the lunches directly from Co-op. No outside food is allowed to be brought in. During the periods of time when schools were closed city wide due to rising numbers, lunches were prepared and handed out at a central community spot to help ensure as many children as possible were still being fed.
This restriction often made it difficult to meet the budget guidelines for lunches. As grocery costs rose through 2021, approximately by 8% according to the CBC (Raycraft), it became more difficult to meet budget expectations, resulting in purchasing based on price, rather than on variety or quality. While realizing food is better than not having food, at times it felt sad to not be able to offer things like strawberries, or to have to offer the same lower cost produce every week. I can’t speak to the kids themselves, only to my desire to be able to provide more variety and options for the kids without disregarding the budget I was trying to keep to.
When arriving to the back of the store, there are four large compost bins. Every week we would peek at the bins, often nothing a lot of fresh produce that still looked usable from an outside perspective. On a few occasions, where the produce had not yet been placed into the bin, we were able to ask an employee if we could take it to use for the lunches and were granted the opportunity. Often, the produce was already dumped into the bin rendering it unusable. As one example would see clamshells full of strawberries with a portion that had turned past the point of being edible. Given the opportunity we would have gladly separated the good from bad and provided the good in the lunches for that week, both saving money and increasing variety.
Through the pandemic and continuing grocery stores have been affected in multiple ways. A global news article in January 2022 noted that “staff shortages, weather, and COVID-19 were all contributing factors” in not being able to keep grocery shelves full (Chacon, 2022).
City news estimated in January 2022 that store could be missing upwards of 15–20% of their staff at any given time (Vissar):
“If you talk to any food company from farm to store, they’re likely missing anywhere between 15 to 20 per cent. So if you’re turning inventories two, three times a day like in produce in a grocery store, if you don’t have the people to do it, guess what, you’re going to have to wait.”
While I can’t speak to specific staffing shortages at Co-op, it may also be a factor in the overall operation of the store or the workloads of the store employees who may often be trying to perform more than one job at a time. Often not in the back when we are, having a fulsome discussion regarding the waste is not something the volunteers felt was acceptable as it would take away from the employee’s tasks and responsibilities, or add a burden to an already overworked employee.
Problem Statement
How can we reduce grocery store produce waste to benefit BB4CK?
Who Are the Stakeholders?
· BB4CK
· BB4CK volunteers
· Calgary Co-op
· Calgary Co-op store employees
· School children receiving the lunches
What is the Environment?
The environment is a busy suburban grocery store. Employees have jobs to perform and procedures in place to accomplish their tasks. A volunteer group operating in the middle of that environment also has procedures and budgets to follow but would like to be able reduce costs and provide a greater variety of fresh produce in the lunches they prepare each week.
Empathy Mapping
For the empathy mapping Calgary Co-op is represented by the square notes. BB4CK and volunteers are represented by the circles. Lastly, lunch kids are represented by the hexagons. The empathy map aims to determine the thoughts, needs or concerns of the users, which in this case is the store, the organization and end user (kids). An empathy map puts the focus is on seeing the problem through the stakeholder’s unique lens to see where and why there might be barriers encountered related to the problem.
Pains and Gains
Pains:
· Frustration over waste
· Rising produce costs
· Staying on budget
· Employee time and responsibilities
Gains
· Reducing weekly lunch budget by subsidizing with free produce
· Reducing store waste
· Increasing variety for school lunches
· Mutually beneficial outcomes, PR opportunity for both groups
Finding the Opportunities
Looking at the issue from a design thinking process, we can turn some of these issues into “how might we” (HMW) statements where we can take the problem and make it into an opportunity.
· How might we work with Calgary Co-op to make grocery store produce waste a benefit to BB4CK?
· How might we create a process to leave produce out of the bin for a short period of time?
· How might we not create extra work for the store staff?
· How might we determine what can be used by BB4CK volunteers?
· How might we be able to repeat this in other stores for other community groups?
· How might we determine what potential ‘waste’ BB4CK volunteers can take without requesting permission on a weekly basis?
· How might waste from other stores be minimized, or provided as a benefit?
· How might the volunteers be able to aid in the selection of good produce from the lot destined for compost?
· How might we frame this as a win for Calgary Co-op?
· How might we quantify the benefit to both the store and the organizations?
· How might we promote the benefit to both the store and the organization?
· How might we quantify the reduction in waste?
· How might we be able to provide more variety for kids, or possibly accommodate more variety into their lunches?
Summary
While it seems like there might be an obvious solution, not all stakeholders will see things through the same lens, so would need to be part of the design thinking process to be able to represent their views, needs, limitations, and restrictions. I can’t presume to understand the logistics and processes of a busy grocery store, so can only base it off my observations of a weekly touchpoint with the store. However, embracing the problem, we can redefine it and identify the opportunities that could be realized for all stakeholders.
References
Brown bagging for Calgary’s kids. BB4CK. (2022, May 12). Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://bb4ck.org/
Raycraft, R. (2022, May 26). Is your grocery bill going up? here’s what the major ontario parties say they would do about it | CBC news. CBCnews. Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/party-promises-food-prices-supply-1.6447957
Chacon, C. (2022, January 22). Grocery stores in Alberta continue to see more empty shelves as supply chain issues persist. Global News. Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://globalnews.ca/news/8531312/grocery-stores-alberta-supply-chain-shelves/
Vissar, M. (n.d.). CityNews. Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://calgary.citynews.ca/2022/01/11/canadian-grocery-stores-covid19/
