SUBMITTED PHOTO The Square Roots program at Medicine Hat College will be selling $5 tokens, which can be exchanged for meals that would have otherwise gone to waste at various restaurants aroun the city.
Medicine Hat College students are working on a new initiative to reduce food waste with a project dubbed “Square Root.”
It is an initiative of Enactus, an entrepreneurial non-profit that operates at 1,700 post-secondary institutions across the world, and being done in conjunction with Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, which is working on the same project.
“What the project does is focus on two issues,” explained Sydney Campbell, an MHC student who’s in charge of Square Root.
“One is food insecurity – not enough people having access to quality meals due to financial stress – as well as food waste – a lot of restaurants throw away food after a day or so when it doesn’t fit their criteria.”
Square Root sells tokens for $5 and those who purchase can redeem it at select restaurants in the city for a meal that’s worth anywhere from $10 to $15, said Campbell.
“The restaurant gets rid of their extra food at the end of the day and don’t waste it, and people can get a quality meal for quite a bit cheaper,” she said.
In addition to individuals purchasing tokens for their own use, groups can sponsor bulk orders for the food bank, women’s shelter or college.
The Sunshine Rotary Club provided $500 to Enactus specifically for the Square Root program.
Campbell says these funds are going towards “kickstarting the project.”
They’re going to start by making items available in the MHC cafeteria, placing stickers on particular items that can be purchased in exchange for a token.
Campbell said they also want to get a marketing campaign going, as well as giving some tokens away to start.
The issue of food security is one that resonates with Campbell.
“Our family used the food bank when I was younger, so it hit a little bit closer to home for me,” she said. “It’s definitely been a learning experience, but it’s really nice to see it slowly gaining traction and hopefully running by the end of this semester.”
