The Town of Prescott is helping make the South Grenville Food Bank’s operations more sustainable and reduce food waste.
At this week’s council meeting, the town donated a “FoodCycler” unit to the organization, so it can convert scraps of food to compost.
According to Councillor Justin Kirkby, the idea for the donation came after he and Mayor Gauri Shankar toured the Food Bank’s Prescott office last month.
“It was an eye-opener, of how much is actually in the building,” Kirkby says. “The whole building was quite impressive, and the one thing that came up to me was that sometimes there’s some food waste. I knew that we had some of these units at Town Hall, and I thought, ‘what a great partnership and late Christmas gift for the Food Bank?’”
Bonnie Pidgeon Coogler, the organization’s Executive Director, says her team saw a surge in donations of fresh produce last year after urging gardeners to plant extra, which led to some food waste.
She’s in talks to start some other new initiatives, like converting some fresh foods into preserves, to reduce waste even further.