From a petition to a grassroots movement, an effort to prevent food waste in Guelph is taking off, says Laurie Garbutt.
She is the Guelph elementary school teacher and social activist who started a Change.org petition last year demanding an end to wasting food suitable for human consumption in Guelph.
She started the petition in late August. It has since garnered nearly 600 supporters, surpassing its original goal of 500 signatures. See it at www.change.org/p/guelph-city-council-say-no-to-food-waste-in-grocery-stores-feed-guelph-s-hungry.
In the interim, she said in an interview, the idea has been “taking off on us, and has become a movement.”
She said a number of agencies, including The Seed, a local organization dedicated to strengthening the emergency food system, and an official at Hope House, a social agency that provides services to the city’s marginalized, want to help.
Now, a growing number of partners in the movement have come together to form On My Table: The Guelph Food Waste Reduction Project. Guelph city councillor James Gordon is onboard.
“We have quite a few different agencies that are weighing in, and about 30 people on our mailing list,” Garbutt said, adding that a number of discussions have been held with local stakeholders in the food security network.
“It’s time to bring them all together,” she said. “There has been a huge amount of interest.”
The various players will come together on Monday, Feb. 6 for a stakeholder roundtable discussion lead by Garbutt and Gordon. It happens at 10 Carden Street at 7 p.m. RSVP to [email protected].
It will discuss the petition, as well as make preparations for a future presentation to city council, where the backing of the city will be sought through a resolution.
“The basic thrust of this is to end the food waste,” Garbutt said. “It is about the whole food insecurity issue, and to keep this food that is suitable for human consumption out of our landfill.”
Previously, Garbutt said one person in France, a municipal councillor, spurred citizens and politicians in that country to take action to end hunger, ultimately leading to laws that make it illegal to dispose of food that is still edible.
She wants to see the same thing happen here, where grocery stores and restaurants partner with community organizations to make sure still good food is not thrown away, but rather distributed to food banks and agencies that feed the hungry.
“This alone isn’t a way to fix food insecurity,” she said in the interview. “There are so many other measures that need to be put in place. But this is an effort to curb the waste going into the trash everyday. We really need to develop a partnership here, based on the French model.”
