Student entrepreneurs from Okanagan College (OC) are taking their fight against food waste and food insecurity to more businesses throughout Western Canada, as their social enterprise the Unusually Good Food Co. is expanding.
With the goal of donating one-million servings of apple chips to children, the Unusually Good Food Co. has formed a partnership with Loblaw Companies Limited, expanding to 19 cities in Western Canada with its line of apple juice.
“This is so exciting for our social enterprise to be able to partner with such a well-known and respected company as Loblaw Companies,” said MacKenna Lenarcic, President of Enactus OC. “Our goal is to help eliminate food waste and food insecurity and create a zero-waste business. This is going to allow us to continue to work towards that.”
Unusually Good Food Co. apple juice will be available in Your Independent Grocer store locations this April. With each box of juice sold, apple chips will be donated to elementary schools across Canada.
“At Loblaws we are excited to support a great initiative like Unusually Good – it saves food waste and helps local communities, all while being some of the best apple juice you’ll taste, said Colin Breen, Category Director, Loblaw Companies Limited.
“The sky is the limit for this group of young entrepreneurs and it’s been an honour to help them expand their reach.”
The Unusually Good Food Co. was inspired by Enactus Okanagan College students who noticed that large amounts of apples are wasted each year because they don’t fit appearance standards. In response, the Enactus OC team turns these “unusual apples” into healthy apple chips that they donate to Canadian schools and food banks.
“We’re very proud of the students who formed the Unusually Good Food Co. utilizing their business education to benefit our communities through new and exciting ideas,” said William Gillett, Dean of the Okanagan School of Business at OC. “We pride ourselves on contributing to the workforce of the future through students who are ready and able to tackle real-world problems in business and in our communities.”
To fund its mission of providing healthy apple chips to school children, the Unusually Good Food Co. creates high-quality apple juice and puts all profits back into producing apple chips for school children. So far the company has saved 69,535 kilograms of apples from going to waste, creating more than 135,000 servings of apple chips and impacting over 22,000 children with nutritious snacks.
Enactus OC finished in the top four of last year’s Enactus World Cup in Puerto Rico, presenting it’s the Unusually Good Food Co. on the world stage. They won the right to represent Canada at the event by placing first at the Canadian Enactus National Championships.
To learn more about Unusually Good Food Co, and the impact these incredible students are making, please visit their website. https://www.unusuallygood.ca/
Originally posted April 14th, 2023 by College Relations available here.
