Over 700 counties, cities, schools and nonprofits are part of food waste prevention week April 7-13. Anoka County is participating and hopes to shine a spotlight on how to combat this problem.
“It’s an online and in person campaign to promote and educate about reducing your food waste at home and at work,” said Maggie Yauk, who is with the Anoka County recycling and resource solutions department.
This program is separate from organic recycling efforts that have become popular in the past couple decades.
“Organics recycling or food scraps recovery is different from food waste prevention,” Yauk said. “Food waste prevention is preventing trash from occurring in the first place.”
According to Yauk, the key is to shop smart
“It’s a lot of individual actions…” Yauk said. “The goal is to just buy what you need and then eat everything you have.”
Approximately 38 percent of food produced in the US is not eaten. Yauk has some simple solutions on how to cut back on this waste.
“Plan it,” Yauk said. “Store it. Cook it. Save it.”
Save money and the Earth
Yauk says there are many benefits to food waste prevention.
“Reducing waste in any form is the most efficient and effective way to manage waste before it even gets generated in the first place,” Yauk said. “You can go to savethefood.com and they have some really good tools and tips for how you can plan larger group meals.”
Meal prepping is something Yauk does each week. She says it’s important to buy just the right amount of fruits and vegetables.
“One thing I have in my fridge, it’s called a blue apple,” Yauk said. “It captures ethylene gas that is given off when fruits and vegetables ripen, so it helps keep your produce in your fridge fresher longer. Anything that is perishable is what you want to target first. Those things can spoil the quickest.”
Less can be more when people are at the supermarket. There are benefits to reducing your food consumption.
“A family of four can save on average up to $3,000 a year,” Yauk said. “That’s a sizable raise for most people just by not wasting food.”
Cutting back on food waste is good for the Earth too.
“It conserves land,” Yauk said. “It conserves water. It conserves people’s time to grow and transport packaged food as well as fuel to grow and transport packaged food. It also improves food access in our communities.”
For more information go to AnokaCountymn/recycle. The site has recipes for food prep and other tips.
