“Just It Eat” Screening & Panel Discussion to Kick Off Save the Food Challenge

Waste Free Greenwich will host a virtual screening of “Just Eat It” and a panel discussion to kick off the Save the Food Challenge. The film will be available for at home viewing to registered participants on November 18th and 19th.

A panel discussion moderated by Ali Ghiorse will follow on Thursday, November 19 at 7:00-8:00 pm with Love Your Food NY’s Elizabeth Radow, Chef Raquel Rivera of A Pinch of Salt and Waste Free Greenwich founder Julie DesChamps.

The event is presented in partnership with Greenwich Community Gardens, Greenwich Botanical Center, Greenwich Conservation Commission,
Greenwich Green & Clean and Greenwich Recycling Advisory Board.
Winner of numerous awards, “Just Eat It” follows Canadian filmmakers Grant Baldwin and Jen Rustemeyer over a six-month period, as they conduct an experiment to eat only discarded food. The film also features interviews with environmentalists, food waste experts and farmers, who highlight the extent of the problem and solutions. Panelists will discuss food waste reduction strategies at home by cooking more with less, recycling uneaten food scraps, changing habits and more and will field questions
from the community.

This event addresses the need for a cultural shift about the appearance of food, meat consumption, purchasing habits and expiration dates and what individuals can do to reduce food waste, one of the heaviest and most expensive types of disposed trash. In the US, 40% of food never gets eaten, wasting all the resources from field to fork like water, energy, labor and cropland. Each year the average American family throws away 1,000 pounds of food, equating to at least $1500 lost. All this is wasted, while one in eight Americans is food insecure.

“Consumers are responsible for more wasted food than grocery stores and restaurants combined, so changing household behavior is key to reducing the problem of food waste,” according to Save the Food.

To this end, Waste Free Greenwich is challenging our community to decrease residential food waste by at least 25% through easy, actionable steps like prevention, donation and composting. The Town of Greenwich Conservation Commission and Waste Free Greenwich have partnered with Save the Food, a national PSA campaign, to promote better meal planning, storage and cooking.

Residents are encouraged to conduct an audit and adopt Save the Food’s tips and tools to prevent food waste. The challenge also aims to increase awareness about food donation as an effective waste diversion strategy and support to hungry neighbors. Finally, the Save the Food Challenge focuses on expanding residential participation in backyard composting and Greenwich’s food scrap recycling pilot, a voluntary drop-off program launched in June.

For registration and further information about the “Just Eat It” event and Save the Food Challenge, visit https://www.wastefreegreenwich.org