Montreal-based Metro Richelieu Inc. has joined the eco-minded group Equiterre to bring Community Supported Agriculture to three Metro stores this summer.
Through November, Metro store parking lots in the cities of Granby, Quebec, Joliette, Quebec, and Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, will serve as weekly dropoff points for baskets of organic vegetables pre-ordered by consumers from local farms.
Hamel “The Community Supported Agriculture project provides us with an opportunity to broaden our efforts aimed at supporting Quebec suppliers by directly linking the consumer with the farmer in their region,” said Bernadette Hamel, vice president of national procurement for produce.
Metro’s communications adviser, Genevieve Gregoire, said the retailer is also boosting its blue and yellow promotional material and signage in stores to support the province’s Aliments du Quebec (Quebec food products) program.
On June 14, Metro announced it will collect compostable organic waste in 22 of its Metro and Super C stores for the next six months.
The pilot project is expected to divert an average of 1,672 pounds of organic waste from the garbage per store per week, Gregoire said.
Waste will be collected from the produce department and unsold bakery products as well as from the processing of sliced fruit and prepared meals.
Quebec company Sanimax will collect the waste weekly and send it to compost sites in Montreal and Quebec City.
Gregoire said the project is one of several initiatives toward Metro’s goal of diverting 25% of its waste by 2016.
She said organic waste represents about 30% of all supermarket waste.
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