Saskatoon group takes a look at reducing food waste

A group in Saskatoon is looking to start a conversation about food waste and accessibility.  

A free screening of the movie Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story will take place Tuesday night at the Roxy Theatre.

Rachel Engler-Stringer, associate professor in community health and epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan, told CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning Tuesday that the film is about local and global food waste: What ends up in landfills that shouldn't.

Engler-Stringer said working alongside the Friendship Inn, which provide nutritious meals, sparked her interested in initiating a night focused on food waste.

She said the event is a way local communities can ensure that healthy food is not going to waste but instead going to people who need it most.

Only buying perfect

According to Joanne Fedyk, executive director of the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council, one of the major reasons behind the waste is due to grocery shoppers choosing to only buy perfect food.

"A lot of stores will end up taking anything less than perfect and throwing it away. Plus, all the less-than-perfect food that gets grown — because nature doesn't choose — never makes it to the stores," Fedyk said.

"So there's a whole lot, especially in the fruits and vegetables area, where we don't get to see it and it doesn't get to us."

For more information on the film night, click here.