With Earth Day coming up on April 22, a group of students from the Think Tank presidential scholar project have spent this year researching food waste on campus and finding new ways for students to help reduce food waste. On Thursday, April 21, they will be showing a documentary called “Wasted” to educate the community on the importance of looking at people’s own actions and knowing how they influence the food waste UNI produces.

Mallory Schmitz, one of the students working on the project tells NI, “As part of the presidential scholars program, our class has spent the school year developing different service learning projects.” 

Schmitz continued. “Our whole class split into four different groups, and our group decided to tackle some sort of environmental issue.”

Schmitz also commended the work of her group members.

“Last semester, my incredible group members Lauren, Nola, Kelly and Abby, and I spent a lot of time learning about food waste on campus and brainstorming different solutions. In the end, we decided to take an educational approach and emphasize the effects each individual community member has on food waste, and then how that food waste makes an impact on our community.”

Schmitz encouraged the campus community to check out their work.

“I think students should come to the event to become more aware of their effects on the environment and learn about the power they individually can take to control their own food waste. Also the documentary “Wasted” provides a really unique and well-rounded perspective on global food waste narrated by Anthony Bourdain. It’s a really interesting watch.”

“We hope to educate the UNI community on food waste so they become more aware of their own actions. I think that one of the first steps in solving a problem is educating people on the problem, so we hope we can start some discussions on campus and hopefully eventually get UNI to the point where it is a zero-waste campus.”