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Sustainable Food
There is a vast web of food systems brings you more food options than ever before, this system takes a steep toll on our planet through mass monoculture (growth of a single crop) requiring huge amounts of water, fertilizers and pesticides, transportation of products by air and water across the world using fuel and releasing carbon dioxide, and consumer habits creating vast amounts of food waste. Globally, 30% of the food produced ends up in the garbage. Think Canadians aren’t part of the problem? 63% of the food we toss could be eaten.
While these issues with our world’s food system may seem huge, there are many tangible things you and I can do in our day to day to make our relationship with food more sustainable and less wasteful at each stage of the process. Along with the tips below, check out 10 ideas on how to avoid contributing to this food waste problem.
When Purchasing Food
Groceries on Campus
Ramen and pizza are typical student meals with fresh vegetables often forgotten or not easily come by. Laurier offers two on-campus grocery stands:
- Northdale Market Stand at Veritas features produce from our Northdale Campus. Check out our Instagram for updates.
- Laurier's Farmers Market is run by the Laurier Foodbank in the concourse every Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. during the fall and winter terms.
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:
- Food tastes better, is fresher and more sustainable as it hasn’t had to be stored and transported thousands of kilometres
- 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.
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.
When Preparing Food
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!
Fairtrade Campus
Fairtrade is a certification that allows you to identify products that empower marginalized producers to improve their own living conditions. With the proper resources, capacity, and access to key relationships, disadvantaged producers are able to earn their own means to a better life for themselves and their communities by joining fair trade networks.
Fairtrade at Laurier
Currently, we have a baseline Fairtrade designation but are working towards receiving a silver designation during the 2023-2024 academic year. An example of what would need to be done to receive a silver designation is to increase the volume of fairtrade products on campus.
You can support producers by purchasing Fairtrade products at the following locations:
- Coffee & Tea Drink Click this tab to view content pertaining to Coffee & Tea
- Chocolate Choco Click this tab to view content pertaining to Chocolate
- Fresh Food Company (Waterloo, Dining Hall)
- Union Market (Waterloo, Terrace Food Court) (Tea only)
- BYTE75 Coffee and Social (Waterloo, Lazaridis Hall)
- Wilf's Restaurant (Waterloo, Fred Nichols Campus Centre)
- Veritas Cafe (Waterloo, GSA)
- Frank's Coffee Haus (Waterloo, Peters Building)
- 1911 Coffee Company (Waterloo, Terrace Food Court)
- Golden Grounds (Brantford, RAC)
- Catering (Waterloo and Brantford)
- Union Market (Waterloo, Terrace Food Court)
- BYTE75 Coffee and Social (Waterloo, Lazaridis Hall)
For more information and hours, visit Laurier Food Services.
Food and Drink on Campus
As a student, we know you spend a lot of time on campus studying, going to class and participating in social and recreational activities and for all these, you need to stay properly fueled!
We want to make it easy for you to be sustainable while purchasing food and drink on campus and also save some money. Just do a little pre-planning before heading out for the day and you can help save the planet and your wallet!
How? In partnership with Food Services, we have two major discount programs on campus:
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Coffee Discount: Bring your reusable mug to any coffee or tea location on campus and receive a 40¢ discount all year-round.
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Friendlier Reusable Containers: Laurier was the first Canadian universities to implement Friendlier's reusable container program. Friendlier's blue containers are available at several locations across the Waterloo campus, they are double sealed, durable, and good for over 100 uses. They also have their own diversion stream, you can find the highly visible blue Friendlier branded bins anywhere where the containers are dispursed. This green solution is also free for users if the proper steps are taken! The program uses a deposit system ranging from 50¢ - $1.00 which is included in the cost of your meal. Simply follow the 4 easy steps of the program to contribute to eliminating unnecessary waste on campus and get your full deposit back.
- Download the Friendlier app on your phone (you can also visit Friendlier's webpage to sign up) before you visit one of the locations where the containers are provided: Wilf's, the Mini Market, Frank's Coffee Haus, Byte 75, El Torito, and Union Market.
- Scan the barcode on he bottom of the container with your phone once your meal is finished to get your deposit back.
- Return the dirty container to a blue Friendler bin and we will take it from there.
- Redeem your refund on the Friendlier app, you can redeem each time a container is returned or let it accumulate. You also have the option of donating your depoit to a local charity.
Northdale Community Garden
Did you know we have a large garden on campus?
The Northdale Community Garden is 58,125 square feet wild area located a block behind Lazaridis Hall at the Northdale campus. Here, we work in partnerships to connect our community to the wonders of gardening, eating local food, supporting wild pollinators and more.
The garden space also has a greenhouse, located in the centre west of the garden space, where plants are stored pre-planting and sustainability workshops take place during the summer months. We hope to see you there!
Our Wonderful Partners
These groups work together to make Northdale possible:
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!
Coming spring 2023, students will be able to apply to have their own plot to grow food on campus! Keep an eye out for more information.
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:
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