How to host a sustainable dinner party

Use real dishware instead of paper and plastic

It’s tempting, especially as the number of guests creeps upwards, to skip the dishwashing and go for disposable plates, cups or flatware. If you’re able, stick to your real dishware, even if it means not everything matches and maybe, just maybe, not everything is a plate! Mix up plates and bowls; serve dessert in cups and mugs; anything goes. If you really can’t pull it off with what you have on hand, you could even ask people to BYOP(late) and have a washing party at the end (or send people home with dirty plates). If your guests push back, convince them of its importance by sharing the plastic episode of our podcast, “What You’re Eating.” It’s your house, you make the rules!

Eat down your pantry or freezer

Build your menu around food you already have. If you’ve got a bag of beans hiding out in the pantry, start with a bean dip or make vegetarian chili your main. A freezer full of corn-cob stock can become the base of your soup course; an unopened jar of gifted preserves can go on a cheese board or between layers of a cake. Take stock of what you have and start dreaming of menus based off of those tentpole ingredients. Don’t forget to look at your leftovers, too! A stale loaf of bread would make a nice savory bread pudding. Uneaten steamed vegetables can get folded into a frittata. If you end up going the stale/leftovers route, you can find a world of inspiration in Tamar Adler’s “The Everlasting Meal Cookbook.” You’ll be reducing food waste and showing people how they can do it, too.

Serve less meat or no meat

Show people how easy it is to have a hearty, delicious meal that doesn’t have a hunk of meat at the center. One way we can decrease our foodprint — the impact that the food we eat has on the environment, animals and people — is to eat animal products that are pasture-raised rather than factory farm–raised, and to eat much less of them. Use a little bit of pasture-raised bacon or ham hock to flavor a pasta dish or soup. Choose tofu as your main course protein or make beans the star (see below).

Dish up some beans

Have you met us? We’re cuckoo for beans here at FoodPrint, and with good reason. Beans are delicious, versatile, climate friendly and protein-packed. You can begin with a bag or a can and end up with a dip, a stew, a salad or a casserole. We have so many great resources to get you started, including advice for how to cook with dried beans, guidance for beginning with canned beans, and eight essential bean cookbooks to help you brainstorm recipes. You can wow your guests with beans, without a doubt, even if the wow is something like “Wow, I never knew beans could be so good!”

Eat seasonally and locally

When possible, start your menu planning with a visit to the farmers’ market or a peek inside your CSA box. Focus on a menu that helps the season’s best produce shine. Studies indicate that seasonal food can be fresher and more nutritious than food consumed out of season. And by purchasing in season from local farms, your food dollar goes directly to farmers, supporting your local economy and avoiding the environmental impacts caused by shipping foods thousands of miles, often refrigerated. Need help figuring out what’s in season near you? Our Seasonal Food Guide can help. Here’s a sample summer menu, and here’s a late fall one, just to get your wheels turning. Of course, you can always dip into the seasonal produce you put up last summer: Grab your frozen berry stash, unearth your canned tomatoes, find a home for your pickles. It doesn’t have to be fresh to be seasonal!

Gather round a hot pot

In her newest cookbook, subtitled “Creating the Ultimate Meal for Gathering and Feasting,” internet fan fave chef Natasha Pickowicz breaks down the nuts and bolts of the East Asian tradition of boiling vegetables, meat and seafood in a bubbling broth at the communal table. She presents hot pots as a delicious way to bring people together, one where you can show off the season’s best proteins and veg. It can be “a magical event where everyone becomes best friends,” she asserts, while also being a vehicle for elevating the humblest of ingredients, including whatever it is you happen to have in your fridge that needs to be eaten up before it goes bad. It can be veg forward, pickle-licious and doesn’t necessarily require any special equipment, as she explains in the book.

Make it a potluck

According to a recent New York Times op-ed, “The potluck went mainstream during the Great Depression, as a way for poverty-stricken communities to ensure every person could eat with dignity.” With food prices soaring, and a pervasive economic uncertainty (as well as other types of uncertainty), potlucks have as many virtues to offer in 2026. People bring what they can access and afford. People come together in community, and can use any of the tips we offered above to make it a more sustainable gathering. Those who have less can bring less and those who have more can bring more. You could, as food writer Lukas Volger recommended in a recent Substack post, focus the potluck around one cookbook, either having everyone make a dish from it or just talking about the book together.

Send people home with leftovers

It would be a shame if, after all of your hard work to make this party greener, you threw away what was left at the end. Food waste is not only scraps and leftovers in the garbage: It’s a waste of all the resources that went into producing that food to begin with, including water, energy and labor. On top of that, when uneaten food is disposed of in landfills, it gradually breaks down to form methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. You can be a part of the solution by reducing household waste — starting with this li’l dinner party you’re throwing. Encourage your guests to bring takeaway containers and send everyone home with an edible memento.