The Canadian Flowers for Food Society (CFFS) is a registered Canadian charity under paragraph 149(1)(f) of the Income Tax Act (the Act). CFFS is also a registered BC Society (BN: 84141 0756 RC001).

CFFS’s vision statement is to provide opportunity and support for homeless, recovering people (mental affliction and/or physical addiction), and other marginalized or needy groups in Canada; and we accomplish this via donated potted plants and cut flowers.

Another successful CFFS program being offered to seniors and people undergoing psychosocial rehabilitation (the MPA Society) is called the Office Floral Outreach Program where our volunteers provide donated flowers and expertise to seniors (floral classes) at their home (group residence) or mental health organizations to create floral arrangements or decorate potted plants for local offices and businesses in exchange for donations of any size.

Since 2005 CFFS has been delivering these collected flowers to other charitable programs including the Mom Agape Street Ministry for Homeless persons who use the flowers on the streets in exchange for monetary donations to eat and live.

The CFFS Street Level Program utilizes floral discards destined for regional landfills. In 2008 the CFFS picked up and transferred just under 60-thousand floral stems to homeless people in Metro Vancouver as part of the estimated quarter-million floral stems that have passed through CFFS to homeless and marginalized persons since year one.

The Flowers for Food Composting project is phase II of this non-profit venture designed to
immediately divert floral (organic) waste from GVRD landfills to composting stations, employing homeless persons of Greater Vancouver with day jobs while producing a viable nutrient-rich compost product that
can be sold within 4 to 6 months, further reducing the impacts of homelessness and organic waste in our landfills producing greenhouse gases.

"Methane gas is created by the natural bacteria that break down organic wastes from crops, sewage,
animal waste and garbage. Usually methane escapes into the atmosphere, where it becomes a greenhouse gas." ~NRC '08

The Flowers for Food Society appreciates (and applauds) the donors from the floral industry, and their willingness to participate in this innovative project designed to safely provide economically sound, sensible, and socially inclusive solutions to a growing problem affecting all of society.

The Flowers for Food Composting project provides immediate and direct benefits to several local charities and homeless people, in addition to numerous positive economic and environmental impacts, including:

1. Reducing greenhouse gases contributing to global warming;

2. Providing opportunities to empower, feed, and care for homeless people;

3. Producing a viable, nutrient-rich compost product, to be sold to the GVRD and its municipalities for both commercial and private use, in support of charities and homeless people.

Compost is a safe substitute for chemical fertilizers and adds nutrients, texture, and porosity to existing
soils while accelerating root growth, increasing aeration, improving moisture retention and water
absorption. Nitrogen-rich compost also reduces soil compaction and erosion.

Read more on the CFFS Compost Project (pdf). Then read our Feedback pages and tell us your thoughts on these issues and/or the Canadian Flowers for Food Society.

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