Reducing food waste to feed those in need

As published in The Record on October 16, 2025.

Every day, perfectly good food is thrown away while countless people in our communities go hungry.

From October 20 to 26, Waste Reduction Week in Canada challenges us to rethink the way we consume, use, and discard the things we depend on every day. It’s a national campaign that raises awareness about the benefits of reducing waste and encourages Canadians to make environmentally responsible choices.

And there’s one kind of waste we urgently need to talk about: food.

Here in Canada, 46.5 per cent of all food produced never gets eaten. That’s 21.18 million metric tonnes—or about 1.5 million garbage trucks—filled with perfectly good food tossed aside. It’s food that could have nourished families who can’t afford rising grocery prices, yet instead ends up in landfills, where it releases harmful greenhouse gases as it decomposes.

Imagine the difference it would make if we rescued that food and redirected it to the tables of people who need it most.

At The Food Bank of Waterloo Region, that’s exactly what we do. Through our Food Recovery program, we collect edible food from farmers, restaurants, retailers, distributors, and manufacturers—food that can no longer be sold and would otherwise be discarded—and redirect it to people in need across Waterloo region.

This work makes a real impact. Between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025, our Food Recovery program saved over 2.7 million pounds of food from being thrown away. More importantly, it helped feed the more than 73,600 people in our community who rely on food assistance.

To make the most of these donations, larger fresh food items go to our Fresh Approaches Food Centre, our award-winning onsite processing facility. There, volunteers safely repack and freeze these sizable donations, extending their shelf life so more nutritious food reaches the one in eight households in Waterloo Region accessing food assistance. Since opening in 2018, the Fresh Approaches Food Centre has processed over 733,000 pounds of food.

Reducing food waste isn’t only about large-scale operations. It’s also about the choices each of us makes at home—starting with understanding how to safely use the food we already have.

That includes knowing the difference between best before and expiry dates. A best before date indicates how long a product will maintain peak quality in taste and texture—it doesn’t mean the food becomes unsafe the next day. Many foods are perfectly safe to eat well past their best before date. An expiry date, on the other hand, marks the last day a product is safe to consume. Foods with expiry dates should never be eaten after that date because of the risk of bacterial growth, spoilage, or loss of nutritional value.

As an affiliate of Food Banks Canada, we follow national guidelines that allow us to safely distribute canned goods up to two years past their best before date, boxed and bagged items up to one year, salad dressings and mayonnaise up to six months, and natural peanut butter and tetra packs up to three months. Baby food, formula, and meal replacements can never be used after their expiry date.

These practices aren’t just for food banks—they’re for everyone. Following these guidelines at home can help you reduce the amount of food you waste and make the most of the groceries you buy. And when you donate non-perishable food to The Food Bank, keeping these timelines in mind helps ensure your donation goes further.

We all have a role to play in reducing food waste. This Waste Reduction Week in Canada, I invite you to pause and consider how much food you throw away—and whether it could instead help nourish someone in need.

Because the truth is, the fight against waste isn’t just about protecting the planet. It’s about making sure no one in our community goes hungry.

Kim Wilhelm, CEO, The Food Bank of Waterloo Region