SUSTAINABILITY-MINDED STUDENT ORGS TO HOST FOOD WASTE AWARENESS WEEK MARCH 27- 29
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.– Each semester at University Park, enough food is wasted to feed 4 sold-out home football games. In an effort to raise awareness of this important issue, Student Farm Club, Eco-Action, PSU Veg Club, and Healthy PSU have organized Food Waste Awareness Week: a series of events open to all students and community members to learn about the issue of food waste and what they can do to reduce their own.
The events hosted during the week include a free screening of the film, ‘Wasted! The story of food waste’ and a sustainable dining event, ‘Food for Thought’. Student organizers hope both events will shed light on the various ways to reduce food waste on campus and at home.
The free screening of ‘Wasted! The story of food waste’ will take place on Tuesday, March 27 from 7 p.m.- 9 p.m. in HUB Freeman Auditorium. A short panel discussion led by student sustainability leaders will follow the film screening to answer questions about Penn State’s food waste.
“At Penn State, we are fortunate that we can compost our leftover food, but composting is the second least preferred option for food waste. ‘Wasted!’, produced by Anthony Bourdain, is a must-see film that surprises, informs, and inspires us to decrease the negative environmental impacts from our food-related behaviors,” said Jess Chou, a Student Farm Club member who organized the screening.
‘Food for Thought’ will take place on Thursday, March 29 from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. at the MorningStar Solar Home. The cost of dinner is $3, which features delicious vegetarian and vegan food options from local partners Taproot Kitchen and RE Farm.
“We make over 200 food decisions a day. If we can encourage people to stop and think for an evening about the impacts of their food waste decisions, we have the opportunity to change the world. Food for Thought will be a unique community dining experience to rethink Food Waste as Food Rescue,” said Katrina Weakland, Sustainable Food Systems Program AmeriCorps member.
For more information about these events, contact Student Farm intern Olivia Hort at oxh5018@psu.edu