Discarded potatoes germinate into food-supply staple for Nova Scotia institutions
A back-of-a-napkin plan drawn up at a dinner party is filling critical gaps and dramatically changing the food landscape in Nova Scotia, one root vegetable at a time.
Rebecca Tran and Heather Lunan are the co-managing partners and founders of The Station Food Hub in Newport Station, N.S. The women have backgrounds in the public-school and health-care systems, respectively, and they met when they were reflecting on how to get food from Nova Scotia farmers to provincial institutions. An introduction via Linda Best at FarmWorks Investment Co-operative was all it took, and now their facility — a former elementary school-come-processing plant — handles over 4,000 pounds of potatoes weekly.
Since meeting in 2018, Tran and Lunan have been sharing their passion for food-waste reduction, and now provide all of the seasoned mashed potatoes that the Nova Scotia Health Authority needs — mashed potatoes happen to be their most in-demand item.
Growing the business
Starting with leftover sweet potatoes, the pair pitched their idea of using “seconds,” or potatoes that are too small or damaged to be sold commercially. Typically, these are left to rot in the fields, but with its ability to process large quantities of potatoes year-round, The Station gives a second life to the crops farmers might have wasted.
Through its partnership with Gordon Food Services (GFS), The Station has provided in excess of one million servings of mashed potatoes to health-care providers, prisons, and long-term-care living facilities.
With a growing staff of nine, The Station has expanded its operations to include seasoned mashed sweet potatoes, turnips and frozen diced onions and carrots. These vegetables are very labour-intensive to prepare, which often slows down understaffed kitchens. By selling pre-diced veggies in bulk, it saves the kitchens the time and labour costs of the prep being done in-house, while still supporting local options and farmers. These onions are also “seconds,” or castoffs from Oxford Frozen Foods’ onion ring production process.
Chow-chow knowhow
In early 2024, The Station’s founders were presented with a new challenge: helping alleviate the shortage of Nova Scotia chow-chow. The manufacturer elsewhere had closed up shop, and GFS approached The Station and asked if they could step into the breach. “It was difficult finding green tomatoes in February,” admits Lunan, “but we did it! And we are so excited to use Nova Scotia green tomatoes going forward. We should have a supply to last all year, now.”
In addition to being passionate about food waste, the pair, who were among the Top 10 finalists in the Canadian Food Waste Reduction Challenge 2023, also care deeply about their other environmental impacts.
“We have a closed cycle here,” says Tran. “At the end of the day, when we have food waste — peelings from potatoes — a farmer comes and picks it up to use to feed his animals and farm.” This, they say, keeps their work at a 96 per cent conversion rate, with only four per cent of anything they use going to waste. Even rain runoff is collected from the roof and used to supplement and curtail water consumption.
They also support a community food security effort called Seniors Community Food Box and have raised over $25,000 for local communities through pizza fundraisers for which they provide kits. More recently, they have started working with “Meals to Heal” and the NSHA on providing pre-portioned, frozen medically appropriate meals for individuals recently released from the hospital. They work with dieticians and doctors to ensure these meals are appropriate for each person’s medical condition, in addition to making them as nutritious and tasty as possible.
The founders are quick to point out that there is also payment at every part of the cycle. Farmers get paid for their seconds, even though they might have considered them a write-off. “It’s really important to us,” says Lunan, “that there is a monetary value given to what they do. Everyone must value farmers appropriately; we all need them to keep farming.”
The women have worked incredibly hard to build a necessary piece of farm-to-table infrastructure in Nova Scotia, but they say they couldn’t have done it alone. It wasn’t just FarmWorks that gave them a helping hand.
“We wouldn’t be where we are without the support of Gordon Food Services … and the Department of Agriculture. They have been so supportive, helped with our pilot projects, and helped with the food spending when we were starting out. They have been really vital,” says Tran.
The Station Food Hub also has a small retail line of soups and smaller quantities of vegetables available at Windsor-area farmers’ markets and at all Noggins Farm locations in Halifax. Yet with all of this on the go, Tran and Lunan have their sights set on supplying the public school system next.
Partner support crucial
“If we could get in there, that would be awesome,” said Tran. “I was a nutritionist in the school system for a number of years, and it would be so great for kids to have local, healthy food. It would change outcomes, lives.”
For more information, contact Rebecca or Heather admin@thestationfoodhub.ca (902) 410-7995
Watch their video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppP3Y9ELMX0
