Member Initiatives

• Our vision at Peak of the Market is to supply fresh produce to fill half the plate of Canadians.
• Peak of the Market Ltd. is “Rooted in Growers” which fundamentally recognizes their importance as food producers. Their economic viability now and in the future is a key element of sustainability.
• We are committed to providing Canadians with safe, high-quality nutritious vegetables that support a healthy diet and food security.
• Note: We have created our own Sustainability statement and defined what those principles and goals mean to us at Peak of the Market.Many of these goals align well with the 17 sustainable development goals outlined by the United Nations.

•  Using recyclable, biodegradable and compostable packaging materials.
• Implementing inventory management and other quality control practices that ultimately reduce food waste and impact at the landfill. 
• We are exploring regenerative agriculture practices to determine how this approach may be integrated with other sustainable practices already implemented on-farm.
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  Implementing science-based research strategies for long-term improvements to on-farm best practices to ensure soil health, water conservation, pest management and food safety.

In December 2020, Peak of the Market implemented a Sustainability statement for Growers and staff to work toward as we embark on our long-term Sustainability practices based on science-based strategies, principles and findings.

In keeping with our Sustainability practices, Peak of the Market and our Grower partners work to provide Canadians with safe, high-quality nutritious vegetables that support a healthy diet and food security while ultimately, reducing food waste and impact at the landfill.  We do this by providing an off-grade product that might not meet retail standards but is still good quality, nutritious food that should not end up feeding cattle or lining the landfill.

Peak of the Market’s new partnership with the Canadian Football League team, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is designed to tackle hunger and reduce food waste. This past February, Peak of the Market launched a new initiative called “Powered by Peak,” which provides fresh produce to community service groups throughout Manitoba. Every month, volunteers from both the Blue Bombers and Peak of the Market, pack boxes of fresh produce (potato, onion and carrot culls) and deliver them to local community groups, including lower-income housing groups, Indigenous support groups, newcomer groups, seniors’ groups, school divisions, local food bank organizations and more. In just a few months, Peak of the Market has donated enough produce to feed over 8,000 families.

This program recently won a Community Impact award from Canadian Grocer Magazine for showcasing the benefits of contributing quality produce to food-insecure communities and for the significant decrease in the amount of produce leaving the distribution centre destined for the landfill or for animal feed. In eight short months, over 80,000 lbs. of produce have been donated through this program alone. Powered by Peak also builds on Peak of the Market’s long-time history of giving back. 

From July 2021-April 30, 2022, Peak of the Market donated a total of 2,458,389 lbs of produce to community organizations around our city and throughout our province. And from May 1, 2022 – September 30, 2022, we have donated 1,095,305 lbs.  These amounts have been diverted from the landfill and contributed to our sustainability efforts.  For the past five years, the organization has donated approximately $14 million worth of fresh produce to Harvest Manitoba and other community service organizations and food banks across Canada.

Additionally, we have heard from customers and consumers alike that environmentally-friendly packaging is a very important issue. As such, we have taken a look at all of our packaging with a sustainable lens and made some significant changes.  All of our poly potato bags have been redesigned to include less ink and the materials to be fully recyclable.  This includes our five-pound yellow, red, white and russet potato bags, our 15 lb red and russet potato bags as we as our 20 lb red potato bags.  We are looking forward to launching the new look and redesigned bags in the coming weeks.  Similarly, our potato cartons and master potato and onion bags have been redesigned to include 90% less ink. Our new cartons and master bags are brown, kraft paper and contain only one ink colour – black. These cartons and bags are fully recyclable, biodegradable and compostable. In addition, we have redesigned our onion bags to contain much less labelling and we are working on sourcing a more sustainable mesh. Finally, we are working on a new carrot bag that will be recyclable as well. All packaging changes are in line with our sustainability initiatives and are a testament to the commitment to excellence Growers and staff work toward every day.

The pillars of Peak of the Market’s approach to Sustainability include:

People

• We are committed to providing Canadians with access to an assortment of safe, high quality, nutritious vegetables that support a healthy diet and food security.
• We are “Rooted in Growers”.This fundamental value recognizes the importance of Growers as food producers.Their economic viability now, and in the future, is a key element of sustainability.
• At Peak of the Market “Everyone Matters”.The health and wellness of our employees are a priority, and we are committed to fostering a healthy work culture.

Environment

• We continually look for new ways or processes to reduce the amount of waste generated in our business.We do this by:
  • Using recyclable and biodegradable packaging materials and staying on top of innovation happening in this area.
  • Finding efficiencies in our everyday activities to reduce the use of consumables like paper and plastics; and recycle used items.
  • Implementing inventory management and other quality control practices that ultimately reduces food waste and impact at the landfill.
  • We work closely with growers through research and industry involvement to support environmentally sustainable production practices at the farm.

Community

• We are an active part of our community and giving back is important to us.
• We are committed to feeding vulnerable communities in Canada through off-grade food donations.
• We are committed to being active in Community projects and initiatives through staff involvement.Not only does this benefit our community, but it contributes to our healthy work culture.

Our biggest area of learning has been in packaging.

• We have changed all of our poly potato bags to fully recyclable plastic.
• We have removed as much of the ink/printing material from cartons and master bags, as possible.
• We have worked with suppliers to create packaging that will work in conjunction with our current packing systems while at the same time being fully recyclable, biodegradable or compostable.
• We are somewhat challenged by the provincial limitations of what can and can’t be recycled. While we can provide many recyclable packages, if they can’t physically be recycled “at home” what are the benefits to providing them initially? More work in this area needs to be done.

It is important to stay current and up-to-date on the types of packaging available and what is relevant to the processes that are being developed.