#foodwasteactionweek
This #foodwasteactionweek we’re talking about how you can save food from going to waste not just as individual actions but in your community group, workplace or organisation. We’ve all been there, the community event that we thought masses of people would attend to only find a few folks present and a pile of cakes and sandwiches left over. Or how about the workplace fridge which fills up with lunches that aren’t eaten and end up in the bin (eventually!) and heading off to landfill. Thinking about waste especially around food is one of the first steps your organisation can make on the journey to being more climate friendly and embedding Net Zero in what you do.
At home we can account far better for food which might otherwise go to waste. Cook too much the night before? That’s fine, its leftovers for the next day lunch or dinner. But what if you don’t have ‘the next day’ for a community event you have planned? Here are some of our top tips below:
Reduce
The term that you will hear used most when it comes to waste is reduce, re-use, recycle and it is not for rolling off the tongue easily that they are in that order. It really does mean that is the way you should think about what you are consuming and how you dispose of it. Reduce first, if you can’t do that then find a re-use purpose and if that fails then recycle.
So how can you as a community group reduce food in the first instance?
Ensure that you are cooking and providing for as close as you can get the numbers of people attending. That might mean that instead of having an open event, you ask people to book first to attend through your website, email or using a system like Eventbrite.
Top tip from a caterer – if you are preparing a buffet for 40 people in reality that is 30 people’s worth of food, you don’t need to provide for all 40 due to varying diets.
Think about possibly cooking on the day so for example a coffee morning, make it a pancake morning meaning you can cook then and there (if you have a fantastic pancake maker in the community).
Think about other events that you might have coming up? Is there a way that by providing a certain type of food you can freeze it and use it again? Did you know that even crisps can be frozen – the list of foods that can be frozen is actually really lengthy! Milk can also be frozen along with cream and cheese.
Write a shopping list of ingredients for planned out meals before you go shopping.
Re-use
Ok so re-use maybe isn’t quite as closely related to food as it is to clothing or furniture but there are ways that your food waste can be saved in your organisation by re-using it.
Follow the top tips above for freezing food, milk especially can be one that you might have left over from an event but it can be easily frozen and then used again at another date.
Meals can be frozen and then added to later on when defrosted to turn into another dish.
Do you have a Community Fridge or Larder? Either one you are operated yourselves or in your community? As long as food has been prepared in a foodsafe kitchen then you could put any left over food to your larder.
Meal prep for the week ahead, learn what you can and can’t freeze and be sure when defrosted that it’s cooked thoroughly.
Recycle
The last on our list and the last option we should go to but how do you recycle food? Composting is your answer! Composting doesn’t need to be as complicated as you might think it needs to be. For good compost as long as you have pretty much equal amounts of green (grass cuttings, veg) to brown (leaves, twigs) to cardboard you can make a pretty decent compost. It really doesn’t need to be amazing, the point is to keep the food from landfill and to allow it to biodegrade and use it somewhere.
Keep a compost caddy in your workplace kitchen for food waste, encourage your staff to compost their leftovers. It might mean that you are just getting tea bags in it but make sure that the tea bags you are buying are biodegradable and you will be fine!
If you can fit a composter outside your community building or workplace then fill it from the composting caddy whenever it is full. Or find your local community garden and see if your waste can go to there.
There is another alternative for left over baking – chickens! Find your friendly chicken owner and they are usually delighted to take left over scones for the chickens!
For tips and information on saving food waste please visit Love Food, Hate Waste
Compost your food scraps and unused leftovers.
