60: Tony Colley - Food Rescue to Reduce Food Insecurity

Ruthless Compassion with Dr. Marcia Sirota

In September 2017, after a successful 16 year career with 2 national banks, 4 years in the non-profit sector, and 2 years as an entrepreneur, Tony Colley found himself with no job, receiving social assistance benefits, suffering from depression, and food insecure. In that same month he was offered a job as an Event Manager for Toronto’s largest catering company, where he noticed egregious amounts of surplus food being thrown in the garbage daily. Having recently learned about Canada’s national food waste issue months prior, Tony began rescuing this surplus food and redistributing to a nearby shelter on his bike every event thereafter.

In July 2018, Tony found himself in a position of being unable to rescue all the food, and for the first time he realized he’d embarked on a mission without the proper resources. While biking to the shelter he became extremely frustrated with his inability to rescue all the food, and in that moment Tony saw an opportunity to establish a more effective redistribution strategy for several retailers that would benefit from his rescue efforts, and in May 2019 Tony launched Be One to Give (B12Give).

B12Give is for-profit social enterprise operating as a delivery app for retailers with surplus food at the end of the day. They are considered Canada’s first barrier-free food waste diversion program, as they create a circular economy by redistributing rescued food to shelters within the hour or receipt.

To date, Tony has rescued 11,448 lbs of food feeding roughly 8,586 people in The City of Toronto...and this is just the beginning!

Visit his website for more information: https://www.b12give.ca/