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Love Food More, Waste it Less. Yup.

This post is sponsored by Glad. However, my personal enthusiasm for the topic of food waste predates this campaign by, oh, about five years or so.

As you all know, I’ve been blogging about food waste for half a decade now, and during that time, I’ve always felt a bit jealous of places like the U.K., where food waste gets a whole lot more attention than it does here in America.

(There’s a whole non-profit over there, Love Food, Hate Waste, dedicated to fighting food waste. How awesome is that??)

bruised cantaloupe

(Cantaloupe from the discounted produce bin. Ugly on the outside, delicious on the inside.)

But here in the U.S., food waste just doesn’t come up all that often. We like to talk about food, photograph food, eat food, read about food, and, thanks to the Food Network, we even like to watch other people prepare and eat food. But when it comes to thinking and reading about what happens to the food we don’t eat…well, that’s a whole lot less popular.

So, when Glad contacted me to see if I’d like to participate in their new campaign against food waste, I was pretty excited. What?? A national food waste campaign in the U.S.?? Yay!

keep calm and eat leftovers

Two other bloggers (Mavis from One Hundred Dollars a Month and Winnie from Healthy Green Kitchen) are joining me, and Alex Guarnaschelli (you might recognize her from the Chopped TV show) is also working with Glad on this initiative.

(My kids, who watched Chopped on Netflix, were all, “Oh, that’s so awesome!”)

I’d been feeling a little blah on the food waste front, but discussing this program with Glad, Mavis, and Winnie has kicked my booty back into gear (see my recent zero-waste week)!

Anyway, once a month over the next nine months, Mavis, Winnie, and I will be writing about food waste on our blogs (which, you know, is sort of a matter of course for me anyway).

scrambled eggs with salsa and guacamole
(A breakfast of scrambled eggs and leftover salsa and guacamole. I suffer for the cause, people.)

To help us all avoid waste, Glad has a whole database put together to demystify the process of storing some common foods you may not be sure how to properly protect.

And while they do recommend their products when possible, it’s not all about using ClingWrap. 😉 For instance, they recommend that mushrooms be stored in a paper bag.

The site also has lots of practical ideas, like taking stock of the fridge contents daily, and storing food in see-through containers.

glad save it sunday

The official name of this campaign is #SAVEITSUNDAY, and the idea is that since a lot of people grocery shop on Sundays, Sunday is also a good day to do some prepping and protecting for the week of meals ahead so that freshly-bought food stays fresher, longer.

But hey, you don’t have to shop on Sundays to participate! (I hardly ever shop on Sundays, myself). The day isn’t important…what matters is that you take good care of the food you buy the day you buy it.

The #SAVEITSUNDAY program launched just this past Sunday, and if you head on over to SaveItSunday.com, you can learn those tips and tricks I mentioned for protecting the food you love, and take the #SAVEITSUNDAY pledge.

People who take the pledge are entered into a monthly drawing to win a chef-prepared meal at their house (!), which would be a pretty sweet prize.

Also, each week, there’s a challenge (for instance, at the moment, you’re encouraged to post a photo of the produce you bought this week on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, using the #SAVEITSUNDAY hashtag).

Participating in the weekly challenges enters you for a chance to win a #SAVEITSUNDAY prize pack or be featured on SaveItSunday.com.

Since you all hang out here, I know the topic of food waste is already on your radar, but a lot of people don’t pay much attention to food waste, and I think this campaign will help to bring the issue of food waste to the attention of more people nationwide.

(Because my blog hasn’t quite covered the whole nation. At least, not yet. 😉 )

Anyway, I really think that programs like this one will start to bring about a wave of food waste change in the U.S., and I’m thrilled to pieces about that.

P.S. For next month’s Save It Sunday post, I’m going to be trying out some storage ideas and reporting back on how they work. Bring on the experimentation!

P. P. S. You can keep up to day with the Save It Sunday program by following Glad on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

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Jo@simplybeingmum

Wednesday 30th of October 2013

All sounds fantastic Kristen! Food waste is big news here (UK) at the moment. The supermarkets are reporting on their wastage and generally there seems to be a move toward buying less and using more. Which is a good thing.

Lia

Tuesday 29th of October 2013

Something we do at home that helps us eliminate food waste is as I cook something I write it on a dry erase board that I keep in the kitchen. Next to that I write the day I made it. Ex: Chicken Masala Thursday. As things get finished off I erase them from the board. This is helpful in saving energy from staring into an open fridge figuring out what to eat; it also helps us focus on eating the food that is the 'oldest'. Thanks so much for you blog. I like it a lot. :)

Taylor-Made Ranch

Tuesday 29th of October 2013

Food waste is a topic near & dear to my heart. I'm very careful with our food and preserving what can't be eaten fresh. I've just learned of a way that fresh eggs can be frozen to use later so none of the eggs from our pastured flock are being wasted. When the same ole dinner won't fly two days in a row, there's almost always a way to rework it. Leftover fish is made into fried fish cakes and there's NEVER any leftover after that! Stale bread is made into seasoned crackers or french-bread pizza crust, and lightly-soured milk is used for pancakes or biscuits. I love that there's a campaign to bring awareness to the problem. Thanks SO MUCH for sharing!

~Taylor-Made Ranch~ Wolfe City, Texas

Amanda Yoder

Tuesday 29th of October 2013

I'm always a little hesitant because I don't know when produce has gone bad. Is a bruise or a bug hole a problem or not, how many sprouts can you safely cut out of a potato, etc. Those food waste cases are the hardest for me because I don't want anyone to get sick but I don't want to waste it either! I hope they / you will give more tips on these kind of situations...

David

Tuesday 29th of October 2013

Hi Amanda. We just cut out any "bad" bits. We have been doing this all our lives - and we are both 72 years old and in fine health! So if there is a bruise or a bug hole I just cut it out.

We used to go to an old aunt's house when I was a kid and they had an old apple tree. It was always loaded with apples but they were also loaded with maggots! So my sister and I would pick an apple and cut out the bad bits -by the time we had quartered it, removed the core and the skin and the worm holes we probably had about a 1/4 to 1/2 of the original apple! It tasted fine. Now for the bit that you will like - or not. In contrast my father would pick an apple, and eat it!! Worms, maggots, bad bits and all! He would say - about the worms - they have only ever eaten apple all their life, so that is all they are, apple. He just died, he was 94, so I guess it didn't do him any harm. :)

Oh potatoes, same thing, cut out any bits you don't like the looks of - including any green bits of skin. Don't eat the green bits of skin. If there are sprouts I just rub them off and then peel as usual.

Lizzie

Tuesday 29th of October 2013

I am all for this obviously (some times more of my meals seem to be leftovers than starting form scratch meals!) I hate waste with a passion and cant get my head around people who don't see a correlation between wasting resources (food, utilities, water) and having less cash. Spread the word!!

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