How the Cold Shapes Our Food System

Winter slows everything down. Fields rest under snow. Roads close. Ice reshapes how people and goods move.

The cold season also reminds us how fragile food systems can be. A storm can delay deliveries. Ice can cut off access.

Modern food systems rely on a permanent, man-made winter — a vast cold chain made up of fridges, reefers and warehouses that keep food safe, fresh and moving. When that system works, food reaches people, still fresh and ready to eat.

But the cold chain doesn’t just preserve food — it reshapes our expectations. Blueberries in February now feel ordinary, masking how energy-intensive and delicate this system really is.

This loss of seasonality encourages overstocking, particularly at the retail level, where we see this as a primary source of food waste.

Keeping food cold across a complex network takes constant coordination. Second Harvest’s research shows that even small delays or temperature changes in transit can have big consequences for perishable foods. Gaps in the cold chain — power outages, delays between refrigerated trucks and loading docks, inconsistent storage temperatures or transport slowdowns that leave food sitting in transit — are key reasons food is lost before it ever reaches tables.

When this happens, it’s not just nourishment that’s lost, but also the land, water, resources used to grow it and the energy needed to keep it cold.

Across Second Harvest’s network, community partners work together to move food quickly and safely.

Organizations with greater access to cold storage often share space and act as hubs for frozen food donations. When Second Harvest distributed 3,100 lbs of frozen salmon across New Brunswick in 2025, we knew we could count on places like Valley Food Bank to store it safely and support school meal programs and other initiatives serving isolated and rural communities.

Cold may shape our food system, but collaboration makes it work. By sharing space, time and trust, communities are turning a permanent winter into something that sustains.

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