Creative ways communities are reducing food waste

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When we started working on this year’s Climate Solutions Week, all about the future of food, we realized solutions seem to fall into three groups: What we grow, how we cook and eat, and what we often end up wasting.
Below are a few community-led solutions to the latter. While lots of
, sometimes the scale of the problem benefits from a community-wide approach.
It doesn’t feel good throwing away food, and food going to waste isn’t great for the planet either.
To help understand the scale of the problem,
to help explore the amount of food produced in the U.S. that goes to waste.
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Oyster reefs on Alabama’s coast, like many others in the Gulf South, have taken a beating from climate change.
in their place to play an important role in their ecosystem. They filter and improve the water quality; give a home to fish, crabs, and other animals; and help with erosion by providing natural protection to the shoreline.
Since starting the program, the Alabama Coastal Foundation has collected over 22.6 million shells, covering over 57 acres of land.
Some of the shells are used in another program designed to help the oyster populations increase —
The K-8 students at The Wesley School in North Hollywood adorned a series of 5-foot containers with a giant banner that reads:
It would have been much easier for the campus staff to toss the school’s food waste into a city-provided green bin, thanks to California’s law that requires municipal food waste recycling.
But taking it out of sight would miss the point, says their science teacher Johnna Hampton-Walker.
“When it’s invisible like that, they don’t see it,” she says. “They know, but it doesn’t sink in.”
Where that compost ends up can also have a powerful impact. Food waste collected from residences in the city is being used to
.
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Last fall, after an
, volunteers gathered at Kimball Fruit Farms, located at the New Hampshire–Massachusetts border, to glean. The process entails
before it goes bad.
Not only does it cut down on produce going to waste, but it serves as a reminder of the labor that goes into growing and gathering food.
“There are people who do this every single day for their livelihood,” said Paula Moran of the United Way of Greater Nashua. “If you come out and you volunteer one day a year, big deal, but at least it gives you an appreciation of how hard people work.”
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David Thompson is an urban farmer in Tacoma, Washington, who is
by to connecting people to fresh fruits and vegetables.
Thompson founded Food is Free Tacoma in 2015, which eventually turned into the nonprofit organization Food is Free Washington. Food is Free volunteers grow fresh produce to give away to people who need it in public areas like park strips, and in residents’ front and backyards.
There are dozens of sites across the city called Food Independence Gardens, or FIGs. To date, the organization has given away tons of food to people and families throughout Pierce County.
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NPR’s
has lots of resources to help make reducing the waste you produce at home a sustainable part of your daily life:
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