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February 08, 2018 - 8:00 PM
KELOWNA – The head of an Okanagan outreach centre is trying to rally the public to help her fight food waste in the Okanagan.
Clary Lausnes runs All Are Family, a volunteer-only non-profit with branches in Lake Country and Vernon.
She routinely sees parents eat very little or almost nothing at the end of the month, so their kids have food.
“We have families that come in here every week who are trying to get by,” she says. “Then I go into (a grocery store) and I see them throwing out huge bags of pizza that’s a day past the expiry date.”
Lausnes wants the Canadian government to follow France in making it illegal to throw away unsold food.
“There, stores cannot throw away food, it has to go to a food bank first,” she says. “We decide if it’s good.”
Lausnes says she has tried to contact specific grocery stores and has even offered to pick up the food but she was turned away.
“Their head office won’t allow it,” she says.
She’s tried emailing the B.C. government but describes that as “banging your head against a wall.”
She recently launch a petition to try and get the government's attention.
“The law needs to change,” she says. “People aren’t making ends meet. They need more than a couple food bank hampers a week.”
All Are Family’s 25 volunteers help around 700 people at their two locations weekly.
“This is Canada,” she says. “No one should be without a place to live, no one should be without food to eat.”
Do you think this is a good idea? Leave a comment below.
-This story was updated at 12:30 p.m. Feb. 9, 2018 to include a link to the petition.
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