Gamify your family’s food waste reduction

As a writer, my inbox gets a lot of press releases in a given week, and I ignore 99% of them, but this one-liner got my attention. I have no idea if it’s been fact-checked—the survey was commissioned by NatureSweet and conducted by Talker Research, whose entire job is to get my attention, and darn it, it worked!–-but for the moment, that’s besides the point. The real point is that the image of a beleaguered parent, hunched over the kitchen counter at the end of a long Wednesday, picking and poking at a half-eaten PB&J, limp carrot sticks, and browned apple slices….yeah, this hit home in a way few things have since I began my parenting journey. I’m here to tell you: This does not have to be the sad tale it appears to be! Yes, big bummer for all the wasted time that goes into curating, shopping, preparing, and cleaning up after a kid’s lunch that doesn’t get eaten. But big win for turning that into dinner. Why? Because in the United States, the average household wastes over 6 cups of food per week, for a total of $3,000 down the drain per family per year.

So this year, I invite you to gamify reducing your household food waste—all while saving money, saving time by stretching every grocery trip to the fullest, and making yourself feel great for taking one of the top household actions for addressing climate change. Up to 40 percent of food in the U.S. gets wasted, and not only does that waste all the energy, natural resources, human resources, time, effort, water, and fuel that goes into growing, harvesting, processing, and distributing that food, but what happens to the uneaten food is equally concerning: Most household food waste doesn’t get composted. Instead, food scraps sit in landfills, where they generate 58% of a garbage dump’s methane emissions. That’s a huge problem given the potent global warming effects of methane. So, the best thing we can do is prevent food from being wasted in the first place.

Here are three fun ways to get started:

1. Designate a night each week to eat leftovers for dinner—and have a contest to name that night. Eat cold pizza, reheat noodles from the back of the fridge, or pull together random bits and pieces to make an easy stir fry, soup, scramble, or other smorgasbord. (If you don’t have enough for a full meal, supplement with pantry staples like pasta, beans, tortillas, crackers, or bread.) Rather than call it “Leftovers Night,” really market the upsides and make it feel special. You could take turns going through the alphabet to have kids play with alliteration, with names like “Wacky Wednesday” or “Munchie Monday.” You could emphasize the goofiness of the night and encourage made-up words, like “oogle moogle” and “goo gots” from my favorite New Yorker article on the art of “fending.” Or, lean into the individualized, liberating nature of “fridge-foraging” to brainstorm names like “Free Choice Night.” You could also spark creativity around the ease and cost-saving angle, like “Freebie Friday” or “Restaurant’s Closed” or “Chef’s Night Off.” You get the idea. Go wild! Your bank account and the planet will thank you.
2. Turn your grocery list into art. It’s been repeatedly shown that one of the most obvious, simplest tools in the food waste reduction toolbox is one of the most effective: Make a list before your shop. (And stick to it.) To spice things up with said list, have your kids doodle, draw, sticker, stamp, or otherwise embellish. Some of these could turn out to be frame-worthy.
3. Invite kids to invent snack recipes from only opened ingredients they can find in your fridge or pantry. Consider the two random blobs left in the yogurt container, for instance, or the browning banana in the fruit bowl. The handful of remaining chocolate chips, raisins, or cashews at the bottom of the bag. All are treasure for a colorful smoothie, muffin, or “kitchen sink” type of cookie. The same goes for concocting a clever dip or sauce from half a carrot or avocado, a forgotten tub of cottage cheese or sour cream, or a half-used can of tomato paste or pureed pumpkin. Let the games begin!

Hungry for more food-saving ideas? My favorite deep dive on the matter is the “Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook” by food-saving heroine Dana Gunders. Spoiler alert: It turns out you can freeze just about anything.