Peterborough students encourage grocery stores to donate food to Brock Mission homeless shelter

The question that was posed to Mrs. Piotrowski’s grade 5 class for their deep learning project was, “What action can you take to help heal the planet?”

A group of five students from Mrs. Piotrowski’s grade 5 class at St. Catherine’s Catholic Elementary School have decided to complete their grade 5 project on the topic of “food waste.”

“Me and my group feel that we are helping the planet by reducing food waste and helping the homeless,” said Zoie Wallace, grade 5 student.

The project began before March Break. Its aim is to give back to the environment, all while learning communication and organizational skills and how to set goals.

“We went to grocery stores, well we contacted them, and we asked them if they could come and get a meeting with Brock Mission which is a food donation service so they can help reduce their food waste so they don’t put too much food in the landfill,” said Emma Swinehart.

READ MORE: Kingston brewer donates boxes to Mission Food Bank 

Led by parent volunteers, the group set up meetings with the Brock Mission, and both Foodland on Sherbrooke Street and the Real Canadian Superstore at Lansdowne Place to start donating food that would normally be thrown out.

“We basically said, ‘you’re wasting this much food and this could be going to the homeless,'” said Wallace. “We also showed them a law paper which has that if someone gets sick by their food they can’t be sued.”

So far, the Real Canadian Superstore on Lansdowne Street has contributed 5 donations. Foodland is currently working out their donations.

Brock mission program manager Trent Anderson says the shelter serves nearly 1000 meals a week, so this initiative is a big help.

“It was a pleasure interacting with them because they were trying to do something great for the environment and reducing food waste but also for the community,” said Trent Anderson, Program Manager of Brock Mission.

“Our end goal would probably be to stop grocery stores from wasting lots of food,” said Danica Osborne.

The students ultimately hope that this becomes a long-term partnership with Brock Mission and grocery stores to continue providing food.