Early last week the
American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) and the Physician Assistant Foundation (PAF) honoured Toronto nonprofit
Second Harvest. The food-rescue organization was recognized for its commitments to sustainability and nutritional health.
This year marked the first time that the AAPA held a conference outside of US. As has been the organization's custom, the AAPA chose a local nonprofit to recognize.
"It was actually a wonderful surprise to us," says Jo-Anne Sobie, executive director of Second Harvest. "When we got a call from them saying they had chosen us as a community organization that they believed was worthy of their support, we were really blown away."
In addition to producing and showing a video on Second Harvest at the May 22 conference, the PAF also presented the Toronto organization with a $10,000 Caring for Communities Grant award.
Second Harvest, a Toronto food-rescue program founded in 1985, picks up food that would otherwise be discarded—but is nonetheless edible and nutritional—and delivers it to more than 200 agencies across the Toronto. In addition to bringing nutritional food to those who need it, Second Harvest also has an important sustainability component. As Sobie explains, "we've actually rescued over 81 million pounds of food. And that actually equates to approximately the equivalent of 40 million pounds of greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere."
While Sobie admits the award "came out of the blue," she believes that increased awareness around food issues does, indeed, make Second Harvest an obvious choice.
"If people aren't getting healthy food to eat, they're going to have chronic diseases. They're going to have a lot of other health problems that these [physician assistants] are being trained to deal with."
Writer: Katia Snukal
Source: Jo-Anne Sobie, Executive Director, Second Harvest