Record food price hike has some Maritimers cutting down on food waste
At a time when the cost of pretty much everything seems to be sky-high, the latest inflation figures, which came out Wednesday, were shocking when it came to the price of food.
"Well, the numbers came out this morning and they're saying on average that prices are up 9.7 per cent,” said Janet Music, research program coordinator at the Agri-Foods Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.
Music says normally Canadians don't talk about food waste enough, but she figures that will change now that letting too much go into the green bin stands to hit people hard in the wallet.
"We usually consider the climate consequences of wasting food, but now we're getting into the territory where the financial consequences of wasting food is going to be much too high for many households,” Music said.
At Loaves and Fishes in Sydney, they've never been in a position where they can waste much food.
Now that inflation has gone out of control, the food bank and community kitchen has had to switch to making the day's meals as they go.
"Before, we used to make it all in the morning,” said general manager Marco Amati. “And then have it ready for them all day, and have some left over that we'd have to throw out. Now, we make so much that would feed, say, 100 people. Then if we get 120 or 130, it's not hard to just throw something on."
At a restaurant just around the corner, they have a simple way of making sure the day's leftovers get used on the rare occasions they have them.
"So we put a call out there on social media,” said James MacDonald, co-owner of JJ’s Plant-Based Eats.
“We just tell people 'we've got extra food here, we've got more than we planned on having and if you don't mind coming to help us out, you'll leave with a full belly and we'll have an empty fridge.’ So it's kind of a win-win situation."
Music says now is a good time to get into the habit of meal planning for the entire week.
"Often we shop for convenience,” she said. “But now we actually have to take that time to kind of map out what we're going to eat and have a plan for it. [A plan] in the grocery store, but also have a plan for it when it's in our cupboards, in our fridge."
Music adds that many of us now have an advantage — born by the pandemic — that can help us save food and money.
"I think now that we're working from home, we can heat up those leftovers a lot easier than perhaps when we were taking it to work and perhaps slipping out to the restaurant on our lunch breaks,” she said.
Music says research shows 63 per cent of food wasted — or nearly two thirds — is edible.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Alice Munro, Nobel literature winner revered as short story master, dead at 92
Nobel laureate Alice Munro, the Canadian literary giant who became one of the world's most esteemed contemporary authors and one of history's most honoured short story writers, has died at age 92.
Latest updates on air quality alerts, and when the smoke may reach Ontario and Quebec
Wildfires have led Environment Canada to issue air quality advisories for parts of B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, as forecasters warn the smoke could drift farther east.
Are these Canada's best restaurants? Annual top 100 list revealed
The annual list of Canada's top restaurants in the country was just released and here are the places that made the 2024 cut.
Attack on prison van in France kills 2 officers, inmate escapes
Armed assailants killed two French prison officers and seriously wounded three others in an attack on a convoy in Normandy on Tuesday and an inmate escaped, officials said.
Maximum payout for LifeLabs class-action drops from $150 estimate to $7.86
Canadian LifeLabs customers who filed an application for a class-action settlement began receiving their payments this week, though at a much lower amount than initially expected.
Steal a car, lose your driver's licence for 10 years under new Ontario proposal
Repeat car thieves may face lengthy licence bans under proposed changes to Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act.
$1.6B parts plant for Honda electric vehicle batteries coming to Niagara Region
A Japanese company has announced it will build an approximately $1.6-billion plant in Ontario's Niagara Region that will make a key electric vehicle battery component as part of Honda's supply chain in the province.
B.C. brings in law on name changes on day that child killer's new identity revealed
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Manitoba premier to visit areas impacted by wildfire
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew will get a close-up look at the devastation from a large wildfire burning in northern Manitoba Tuesday.