August’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Carolin Ross to fight food waste through Foodsharing Ottawa.

“We are a group of volunteers who fight food waste in the Ottawa region,” explains Carolin. “We are working together with stores to save food that would otherwise go into the bin. We take care of everything from picking up the food, sorting through it, and bringing it to charities. In the last one and a half years we have saved over 15,000 lbs of food.”

Foodsharing Ottawa will use the award from Awesome Ottawa on marketing materials. “We want to draw more attention and spread the word,” says Carolin. “The more people involved, the more food we can rescue and the more we can give back to our community.” She hopes to save another 50,000 lbs of food over the next year.

Want to get involved? Visit Foodsharing Ottawa’s website to volunteer or become a cooperating business, or check the group out on Facebook or Twitter.

Carolin grew up in Germany and moved to Ottawa two years ago, after working and travelling in Australia, New Zealand, and Scotland. She works at a start-up and lives with her husband and two dogs in Britannia.