Climate Change-Makers: ReFeed Canada
Launching a fully circular food rescue operation has more positive impacts than we might see. (But don’t bite off more than you can chew.)
ReFeed Canada’s Stuart Lilley is a dynamo. His passion for sustainable agriculture is honest and his vision was gutsy: “Feed people. Heal soil. Zero waste.”
He gathered a team and launched a fully circular farming system in just three years.
Situated in Langley, BC, the operation diverts surplus food to food banks, upcycles it into consumer goods, or processes it for livestock feed. The remaining goods are converted into natural fertilizers and soil amendment products in the farm’s worm beds.
The company’s website lays out its mission: “Repairing the food system by capturing and using 100% of the nutrition found in unused food and returning it to feed people, livestock, and the soil.”
Lilley coined this system “Circular Nutrition.” True zero waste.
The numbers are impressive: From 2020 to 2021, ReFeed Canada diverted 2,700 metric tons of food waste from landfills (and industrial compost facilities). That figure almost doubled the following year. In terms of emissions, the venture had removed the equivalent of 3,000 passenger vehicles in just two years.
ReFeed were doing something right.
A smart website, gorgeous graphics, quality product packaging, and an award-winning documentary painted a story of success. But making something work and keeping it working are two different things. A funding drought was looming, the workload was crushing, and the business risked dying on the vine.
In November 2023, Lilley issued a call for help. In it, he wrote:
“I have failed to find the partners, supporters, mentors, and the robust network critical to building an impactful company. I have failed to take care of my physical and mental health, affecting my personal life. I have failed to maintain the light that was shining so bright when I started this journey.”
Building a waste-free agricultural enterprise from nothing was audacious. The soil was good, the seeds were sown, but where was the rain?
Lilley spoke with me from his farm in Langley, BC.
(Edited for length and clarity.)
CR: What is your background? How did you come to food rescue?
SL: I started Waste Collective, which is a consulting/brokerage company [for waste management and recycling services for business]. I wanted to be part of the evolution of the waste industry. I was looking at improvements to sustainable systems. Later, my role at an insect feed company had me looking at food waste: safe, traceable food that could go back into the food chain. By then, British Columbia law mandated that businesses recycle, so I engaged with the feed industry on waste and waste collection. Essentially to start a waste management company.
Then, as an advisory board member at Goodly Foods, I saw surplus food being rescued from the waste stream. Rather than becoming waste, the food was going to people. My mom taught us the value of food, that food unites us around family and culture, so I understood the importance of food rescue.
You started ReFeed Canada in 2020?
Just as COVID hit. The plan was to recover what we can for people. We charged the companies that we collected from—produce, bakery goods. Consistent and high volume to keep our costs low. We were paid by the pound—for good, nutritious food. And we provide data and metrics to them in return. 100% utility. Local farmers got what was left for livestock feed.
Our worm farm bio-converts the remaining organic matter into different products, all aligned with healing the soil. A regenerative model.
It was a big operation, bringing in truckloads of produce. You need infrastructure, equipment, and staffing. You can’t do it with volunteers.
Is there a core business at ReFeed? Or is it multi-pronged?
It started with food rescue. We redirect a lot of usable food to local food banks.
Then, to bring in investment, the plan was to set up the worm farm to use the surplus food. We’d produce soil amendment products for retail, home garden, the horticulture industry—products that we could sell. But the investment didn’t come. The product side became an albatross. It was pulling me away from the mission. And burning cash.
I was running in all these different directions.
So I needed to refocus, to align with educating about the broken food system; doing the things we know are needed, and amplifying them.
There should have been more R&D. It would have been better to build it up slowly rather than charging toward being 100% circular out of the gate. But how do we get the funding to do that? For a profit-based business it’s really tough. It would have been more doable as a nonprofit. That’s more aligned with our goals. Not being a nonprofit has hampered us. The VC capital route took us away from our mission.
And with equipment, staffing, and logistics costs, on top of chasing investment, adding products was too much. I don’t enjoy it. It’s taken my spark away.
When I talk about the food we recover, I get excited again. But when it’s about raising capital, I ask myself, “Why did I do this to begin with?”
Do you have partners or are you going it alone?
We have two investors, one is an employee. (Don’t do that, ever.) The other did not want to be a lead investor.
So I have industry alignment but no partners.
What does ReFeed need to survive?
Repositioning. We’re cutting products to bring costs down. We made 1 million in revenue last year. I’ve got provincial support from agri/social development ministries but we need $20k-$30k to keep going.
The greatest need is stopgap funds.
It’s not cost effective for farmers to rescue surplus produce, but it is with ReFeed. We wanted to be a facilitator, to see grassroots growth, and see kids sharing our energy for food rescue.
What advice do you have for others who are exploring food rescue and food upcycling?
If you’re going to do this, make sure it’s with the right people. They need to be scrappy, ready to get dirty, with everyone heading in the same direction. It needs to be more aligned with a startup culture than a corporate culture.
I brought in somebody for cred on the products (and they weren’t cheap). They were great for an established company but not for a startup like ours. There was no ability or willingness to pivot.
So my advice is: Hire people who are flexible and multi-skilled. And you need capital. You need proper funding. Otherwise it’s too much stress.
Let the venture grow organically. Scale it as you can instead of trying to force it. It’ll come when the time is right. The system needs to be stable first. And really own that part. The product stuff can come later.
Also, don’t do things for free!
What are the challenges? Where is the revenue generated?
If you were just doing food rescue, you could probably make it work. But anything over that would take real business sense. Diversifying—selling products, for example—is a route I didn’t want to go down.
When you can monetize carbon capture with all this tech, that would have a real impact. The value of diverting food to animals, people, and soil has way more impact than you can see. Social, environment, and carbon capture—combining those measurements as the true value of what a “circular nutrition” system provides. Sell that as credits—“Impact Credits”. If we don’t do that, these models will be very, very difficult to be sustainable using a conventional business approach.
If it’s done as a waste management program—consolidated collection, 50 pickup points, etc.—that’s just a garbage model. It’s one homogenized mess. But food recovery is specialized collection; it’s a finite resource, after all. It has to be separated, handled differently. And if you have any competition, you’re not going to make enough.
So capture revenue from the impact part of that model.
It sounds like there were some tough lessons.
Naive me, I wanted to fix everything! I thought, “Rather than talking about it, let’s just do it!” But it’s too much, you can’t do everything at 100%.
And people do care about food waste. When you show them how much food gets wasted, they’re amazed. They want to compost!
I’m really proud of where we got to. I don’t want it to end. It’s the start of something. It can be a platform. Deep-diving into reconnecting—who we are, what we want—that’s our superpower.
It’s knowledge we can bring to the table.
🍪🤖
See Lilley’s GoFundMe campaign: Help Save ReFeed's Circular Food System
Key takeaways for managing a food rescue operation:
Choose the right people: Scrappy, flexible, and multi-skilled.
Maintain a startup culture. Everyone needs to get dirty and share the same vision.
Keep focus: Rescue usable food and divert food waste from landfills. I.e. Fix the broken food system.
Recover what you can for people first, animals second, soil third.
Don’t aim for 100% utility. Diversification can threaten the core mission. Rather, find out what is needed and amplify that.
You can’t run it with volunteers. Food rescue requires infrastructure, logistics, investment, equipment, staffing, time, and the revenue to power it all.
Run it as a nonprofit, not a for-profit. This may vary depending on location (government support, local regulations) but there will be fewer barriers to overcome.
The data/metrics obtained from rescuing/repurposing food have value.
Seek funding.
Choose the right investors. Employee investors and investors who don’t want to lead or pivot can create problems.
Don’t do things for free.
Consider even well-meaning advice carefully.
Own food rescue, then diversify. Scale up organically.