One of the simplest and most effective things you can do for the planet and your wallet when purchasing food is to plan ahead. 

Making a food plan for the week and a grocery list will help you not buy more food than you can eat before it goes bad, saving money and preventing food waste.

Why buy local?

Two of the many reasons are:

1. Food tastes better, is fresher and more sustainable as it hasn’t had to be stored and transported thousands of kilometres
2. Your money goes to local farmers and supporting the local economy rather than into the pockets of a massive multi-national corporation.

How to buy local?

Shop at local stores or farmers markets. For a vibrant community feel and great prices, the Kitchener Market, open on Saturdays all year long, is a favourite for our Office. You can get there easily by bus or jumping on the ION. Alternatively, the Jacobs Farmers Market has a touristy environment that is great for a more adventurous outing.  

Over the summer, we even offer fresh produce grown on at our campus garden! Check out the Northdale Community Garden for more information.

How?

Take your own shopping and produce bags whenever you go shopping! This reduces your use of disposable plastic bags and saves you money as you are charged for plastic bags at the checkout. Additionally, you will soon have to do this at many stores. Sobeys is phasing out plastic bags in 2020.

Buy in bulk!

Buying from stores that offer bulk allows you to bring your own containers, preventing packaging waste. Waterloo has two fantastic options for this: Bulk Barn, just a 10-minute walk from campus, offers a Bring Your Own Container (BYOC) program and Zero Waste Bulk, a local store run by a UW graduate that specializes in bulk, local organic foods and zero waste supplies. At Zero Waste Bulk, it’s weird if you DON’T bring your own reusable container!

Eating meat is a key part of culture and heritage around the world, however, many middle-class societies are becoming meat obsessed. This has serious implications for the sustainability of our human society as the raising of cows, pigs and chickens generates GHG emissions equivalent to all the cars, trucks, and automobiles combined. Furthermore, clear-cutting forests for ranch space is destroying our forests.

However, as Greenpeace explains “We’re not advocating that everyone adopt a “meatless” diet tomorrow. But we all must develop “meat consciousness” and reduce the level of meat in our diets. Shifting to more plant-based foods is essential to combatting climate change, soil, air and water pollution, ocean dead zones, and myriad other problems caused by industrial livestock production. If we decide to eat fewer meals with meat or dairy each week, we can have a huge impact on our collective health and the health of the planet.”

When you are food planning and shopping, consider buying a little less meat and instead with fruits, vegetables and grains. Some great plant alternatives that still provide that protein element to your meal are quinoa, lentils, beans, seeds and green peas.

It can be challenging to change eating habits and move away from eating meat as often. One of the best things to do is look up meal ideas! This will provide new meals ideas you’ve never thought of and inspire you with the delicious photos. The Minimalist Baker provides wonderful plant-focused recipes, many that use 10 ingredients or less or just one bowl. Oh She Glows also offers many delicious plant-based recipes.

Use the Scraps

When we cook, we often throw out half of the vegetables we buy thinking we can’t eat parts of them. Instead, think of how you can eat the whole vegetable! Try making potato peel chips or soup broth out of vegetable ends.

Storing the groceries you buy properly can be the key to all those fresh veggies rotting in 5 days or staying fresh for 10 days. Storing food is a crucial consideration when avoiding food waste. Going Zero Waste has some wonderful tips on how to store produce to keep it fresh for longer.

After following all these steps, if you still end up with more food than you can eat, don’t throw it away. Instead, freeze it for dinner another time or share with a friend.

Despite following all these tips, you will still sometimes end up with food you can’t eat before it spoils and bits of fruits and vegetables you can’t use. At this point, compost! Composting is one of the single most important things we can do to support a more sustainable planet.

Check out how you can compost at Laurier!

Located in the northwest of the Northdale Community Garden, the asparagus patch is an unassuming patch of delicious green vegetables that grow in a very neat row.

Asparagus is one of the first things that are ready to eat every year at Northdale! Though it takes three years to mature, with the proper care and time, asparagus returns year after year.

Located in the centre west of the garden space, the edible forest is a patch of food trees. Planted in 2017, this forest will take a couple more years to mature before it produces any food but it is coming along beautifully.

What is an edible forest you may ask? It is a forest of trees in which every plant produces edible fruit for consumption by the community. In the years to come, this forest will provide apples, pears, plums, and berries to enjoy in the summer and fall. Yum!

Located in the east of the garden, two different groups come together to offer space to local residents for gardening. There are always so many interesting plants to look at and people to talk to when you walk around this area. Say hello the next time that you are in the area!

Two Groups:

• KW Urban Harvesters
• Patchwork Community Garden

Located at the southwest of the Northdale Community Garden, our pollinator garden and bee spiral is a testament to our commitment to supporting struggling native pollinators. As they provide one in three bites of food we eat, it is important to support our native pollinators!

• The bee spiral provides native bee species with soil to nest in while being protected from human disruption.
• The pollinator garden features native plants for many different types of pollinators such as bees, insects and birds that pollinate our plants. This garden was installed in 2019 using a lasagna gardening method.

Fact: Did you know that honeybees are not native to North America? However, in North America, we do have over 4,000 species of bees that are native