“Corporations should be forced to figure out what to do with their food waste,” said Paul Taylor, the executive director of FoodShare Toronto and anti-poverty activist.

“They should not be dumping it on charity. The volunteer hours that have been diverted to sort through corporate waste is appalling.”

Nor does this excess food help the majority of hungry Canadians.

“Only about one in four of people who are food insecure in this country actually access food banks,” said Taylor, citing a study co-written by FoodShare Toronto and a research team at the University of Toronto.

Going to the food bank is an “act of desperation,” the report noted. Families using them are “likely behind on bill payments, rent, and other basic necessities…showing it takes substantial improvements to a household’s financial circumstances to shift them out of food insecurity.”

Full story in the National Observer.