CKP: Spinz-A-Round Initiative for Food Insecurity

The Cause

Spinz-A-Round is an innovative initiative that works with 60 social service agencies and community groups in Calgary and area to provide food items to food-insecure families. There are numerous agencies and groups that support the vulnerable sectors of our population by connecting with them directly. Instead of creating another point of contact for food-insecure families, we at the Community Kitchen Program of Calgary utilize the existing network of agencies to efficiently get food to people who are already doing their best to find support for themselves. Families that are struggling financially can have difficulty finding and accessing support, as doing so requires them to expend resources – i.e. money − to travel. Therefore, when they do access support, it is in their best interest for agencies to maximize the impact that they have on their clients. Because of Spinz, the clients of our partner agencies and groups can not only access the usual services from these groups but also take home groceries for their families.
CKP connects with multiple food suppliers in the city that donate food items to us for the Spinz-A-Round program, including Loblaw’s, Second Harvest, and Sysco. Our donors from the food supply industry are a mix of grocery stores and food rescue groups who donate their surplus food items to CKP to minimize food waste while also helping food-insecure families. We at CKP pick up the food in our truck to ensure that we can process the items swiftly and present them twice a week in the Spinz-A-Round program. Every week, around 50 pallets of food donations arrive at the CKP warehouse to be utilized in Spinz. These donations of food items are then picked up by 60 social service agencies and groups that arrive at CKP every week. Organizations have the opportunity to choose the items that they feel are more useful for their client base and are a higher priority than others. To ensure fair distribution amongst organizations, the CKP team uses a turn-based system where all organizations get equal opportunity to pick which items they need out of the food that is available that week. The organizations then take this food to their locations and provide it to their client base according to their needs. They track relevant statistics regarding their client base and participants and every week when they come back for another Spinz day, this information is provided to CKP so that we can understand the impact that Spinz-A-Round is having on our community.

Who Will it Benefit?

The beneficiaries of the Spinz-A-Round program are the clients of the agencies and community groups that CKP partners with. These clients will be receiving the food items from the program free of charge so that they can meet their household’s nutritional needs despite struggling with their finances, health, or something else. Spinz-A-Round is estimated to be utilized around 400,000 times in 2025, which includes over 50,000 children and 39,000 senior citizens. The agencies participating in this initiative include Made by Momma, Children’s Cottage Society, Ender Senior Centre (Indigenous), and Women’s Centre of Calgary. The agencies involved work with women, disabled individuals, children, low-income families, Indigenous communities, and new immigrants, meaning that these are the people that the Spinz-A-Round program ultimately impacts.
Most of the food industry has a surplus of food that does not end up being sold despite being in great shape, therefore the Spinz-A-Round initiative increases sustainability by utilizing surplus food that food suppliers have invested significant resources into producing and processing. Food production accounts for about a quarter of our planet’s greenhouse gas emissions, which includes the emissions released by the storage of surplus food. By utilizing surplus food via the Spinz-A-Round program, CKP improves the operational efficiency of our local food supply network because grocery retailers and food suppliers then spend fewer resources to store surplus food. Because of its contribution to sustainability, Spinz not only benefits the families that receive the food, but also the organizations that are able to serve their clients better.