TORONTO – At the corner of Bathurst Street and Dundas Street West, you’ll find the Soup Bar, owned and operated by Jagger Gordon. Gordon is an executive chef, caterer and founder of Feed it Forward.
“Feed it Forward is a community-based project that diverts beautiful, edible food from landfills and gives it and puts it on the plates of people in need,” said Gordon.
The Soup Bar has been an important part of the project since May of this year — with the help of his 200 volunteers, chef Jagger provides hot, well-balanced meals to anyone who wants one.
“I’m at the food terminal between three and five in the morning picking up the ‘number twos,’ which are the ugly fruits and vegetables,” Gordon said, “or what people won’t use in the supermarkets.”
The Soup Bar feeds between 200 and 300 people a day with a pay-what-you-can system, or pay nothing at all.
“So statistics in Canada is $107 billion worth of edible food that goes to landmasses every year. It’s unbelievable,” said Gordon.
When asked how he sustains it all, Gordon replies, “I have a great catering company that does small events and basically we play Robin Hood.