Food Too Good To Waste

Learn why food is too good to waste.

EXPLORE 

• WASTED! TAKE ACTION 
• SAVETHEFOOD.COM 
• ReFED 
• Love Food Hate Waste 

WATCH 

• Just Eat It – We all love food. As a society, we devour countless cooking shows, culinary magazines and foodie blogs. So how could we possibly be throwing nearly 50% of it in the trash? Filmmakers and food lovers, Jen and Grant, dive into the issue of food waste and pledge to quit grocery shopping and survive only on discarded food for 6 months. Featuring interviews with author, activist, and TED lecturer Tristram Stuart, food waste expert Dana Gunders, and acclaimed author Jonathan Bloom, JUST EAT IT looks at our systemic obsession with expiry dates, perfect produce and portion sizes, and reveals the core of this seemingly insignificant issue in a cinematic story that is both deliciously entertaining and truly shocking. 
• The Extraordinary Life and Times of Strawberry  – Follow the journey of a strawberry from the farm to the refrigerator to understand all that it takes to bring your food to you. Did you know that 40% of our food ends up wasted? Wasted food is the single largest contributor to landfills in the US—not to mention that it wastes water, labor, fuel, money, & love! Courtesy of The Natural Resources Defense Council. 

READ 

• Waste Not, How to Get the Most from your Food  James Beard Foundation   
• Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook: A Guide to Eating Well and Saving Money By Wasting Less Food 
• Cooking with Scraps: Turn Your Peels, Cores, Rinds, and Stems into Delicious Meals

By making small shifts in our daily habits–how we shop, store and prepare food–we can keep the valuable resources used to produce and distribute food from going to waste.

• Track Your Waste. Use the 7 Day Waste Journal to track how much food you waste and where it goes! 
• Get the Tools. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as we bring you new resources and tips each month to help reduce your waste. 
• Set a Goal. What changes can you make to reduce food waste? 
• Join the Conversation. Share your successes and challenges on social media with your friends and neighbors throughout the year.

Take the guesswork out of what to eat.

• Watch our virtual ‘Tackling Food Waste with a Plan Event’ 
• Savethefood.com’s Free Online Food Planning Toolkit including ‘Meal Prep Mate’ and ‘The Guest-imator’ 
• There is no shortage of meal planning apps to assist you – check out a review here.

Proper food storage extends the life of your food and reduces food waste.

• Here are some quick tips from our produce department on how to keep it fresh!
• Learn to lengthen the life of your produce with the National Co-op Grocer’s Produce Storage Guide.
• Freeze! It’s another great way to reduce waste. Tips for Freezing Food.    
• Ever wonder if something will stay fresher in the fridge or the counter? Check out Save The Food’s pro tips for storing everything including proteins, grains, veggies, fruit, dairy, bread, condiments and spices.    

A great way to transform your kitchen and yard waste into a nutrient-rich addition to your soil.

• Learn How to Compost with Sierra Harvest Videos Part 1 & Part 2 
• 10 DIY Compost Plans with links to Directions 
• NCG ‘Welcome to the Table’ Composting 101 by the National Gardening Association  
• NRDC Composting is easier than you think.  
• “Do the Rot Thing” – A Teacher’s guide to compost acitivities.

Here are just a few reasons to love your leftovers.

Be prepared and reduce food waste during a power outage.

• “No Power Pantry” Guide
• How to build a root cellar.
• How to make Milk Kefir  
• All about fermentation with Sandor Katz Wild Fermentation Portal
• Preserving Your Organic Harvest 
• National Center for Home Preservation – a Great source for research-based recommendations about home food preservation. From Canning and pickling to smoking, drying and freezing. 

Encouraging kids to learn about, grow and cook their own food will help reduce waste and get the next generation excited about food systems.

• California Tastes Amazing, a downloadable recipe book based on popular school meals, that parents and children can cook together at home.
• Abundant California includes fun lessons about California crops and introduces kids to the food system that sustains us all. For children in grades 3-5.
• Food Waste Warrior Toolkit created by the World Wildlife Fund is designed for kids in grades 5-12. The toolkit uses math and science to examine what happens to food that is thrown away, including environmental impacts.
• Kids Go Green: Reducing Food Waste Learn about the impact of food waste on the environment in this animated video from WNET. Includes discussion questions and teaching tips.
• The Amazing Garbologist Adventure A downloadable workbook exploring food waste through science and what it takes to be a Food Rescue Action Hero.
• Watch Food Waste Warriors as they go undercover to explore what food their family is wasting.
• Purdue University’s Nature of Teaching has a variety of Food Waste Curriculum for K-5 and beyond.

Coming in October!

Coming in November!