Understanding Motivations for Volunteering in Food Insecurity and Food Upcycling Projects

Sabrina Rondeau,Chantel Kozachenko,Sara M Stricker,Kate Parizeau

doi:10.3390/socsci9030027

Abstract

For non-profit organizations relying on volunteers to operate, investigations into the motivations of volunteerism are critical to attract new volunteers and to support the current ones. This study looked at volunteerism in the not-for-profit project The SEED in Ontario, Canada, which is looking to address food insecurity through a new social enterprise project that will create value-added “upcycled” products from second-grade produce while offering training opportunities for youth facing barriers to employment. The aims of this paper were to explore why volunteers chose to offer their time to this project and to gauge the current volunteers’ interest in volunteering with the organization’s new “Upcycle Kitchen”. Thirty-seven volunteers responded to a self-administered survey. They reported altruism, self-development, and social life improvement as their main motivations for volunteering. The volunteers expressed enthusiasm toward the Upcycle Kitchen initiative, which seems to be attributable to the multidimensional, creative, and educational aspects of the project. Tackling food insecurity and reducing the environmental impact of food waste are values which would most likely influence the respondents’ willingness to volunteer in food upcycling activities. We believe that this study is a good model to learn about the many facets of volunteerism for social enterprises developing upcycling-based food projects.

Highlights

While one in eight households in Canada struggle to put food on the table, over $49.5 billion worth of food is wasted annually along the Canadian food value chain, accounting for nearly one third of the food produced in Canada (Gooch et al 2019)
This study looked at volunteerism in a community food project which addresses food insecurity in Ontario, Canada
We argue that such research is much needed, as it would address a research gap regarding the experiences of volunteers in social enterprise projects which address food insecurity and social dignity

Summary

Introduction

While one in eight households in Canada struggle to put food on the table, over $49.5 billion worth of food is wasted annually along the Canadian food value chain, accounting for nearly one third of the food produced in Canada (Gooch et al 2019). 12% of Canadian households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2014 (Tarasuk et al 2016). By gathering food that could have otherwise been wasted and redirecting it for human consumption, food rescue provides critical opportunities to concurrently address food insecurity and reduce food waste (Hecht and Neff 2019). Food rescue may sometimes be regarded as being a temporary solution to food insecurity or waste (Mirosa et al 2016; Reynolds et al 2015), food rescue organizations still play an important role in connecting available food to those who need it (Hecht and Neff 2019; Hoyos and Angel-Urdinola 2019; Mirosa et al 2016).

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