Oxford County team wants to rescue your pumpkins from the trash, turn them into meals

Many might think that pumpkins can't be used after Halloween and send them off to compost or garbage bins, however, they can serve as an important ingredient in plenty of meals.

In order to make better use of these pumpkins, a group from Oxford County, Ont. works to save those them from the landfill, and turns them into food instead. The annual 'Great Pumpkin Rescue' is organized by a group called Future Oxford, and it happens in the early days after Halloween.  

The group has 10 places in Oxford County, including spots in Sweaburg, Woodstock and Tillsonburg, where people can drop off the pumpkins they used for decorations. Those pumpkins are then sent to soup kitchens, farms, and community meal groups where they can be cooked or baked into meals.

"Lots of them end up feeding people, because any kind of pumpkin is food," Bryan Smith, Co-chair of the group told CBC's London Morning.

"We're indirectly creating more food too by feeding them to all these farm animals. We have really moved a lot of food that would otherwise go to waste into the food stream. Prices are going up and it just makes sense if you bought it, that you turn it into something that you're going to eat."

In a world where there's an excess of food, there are also people without it, including children, Smith said. By saving these pumpkins and using them beyond just decor, he thinks it can help feed those in need. 

He also believes that using pumpkins instead of wasting them can help the environment by preventing the waste that goes into landfills which produces methane gas that is harmful for the atmosphere.  

People should get actual pumpkins, not the plastic kind, Smith said. 

"We know that there are negative consequences to using plastics, they are produced based on things that we extract from the ground that aren't renewable. Pumpkins are renewable," he said. "(Plastic pumpkins) are based on things that cause environmental damage."

Last year, Smith had four bins on his lawn which were overflowing with pumpkins. This year, he's made his entire lawn a collection space as he's expecting "mountains of pumpkins" to be dropped off to him. 

The group will continue taking pumpkins up until November 5th.