Faithful Living: Reducing Food Waste

"Consumerism has led us to become used to an excess and daily waste of food, to which, at times we are no longer able to give a just value. Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of the poor and the hungry." Pope Francis, 2013. 

About 17 percent of global food production may go wasted, according to the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Food Waste Index Report 2021, with 61% of this waste coming from households, 26% from food service and 13% from retail. 

As a good steward of our resources, we are called to do our part to reduce food waste by being more conscious of our choices and actions. 

Seven quick reminders:

1. Plan meals and stick with your grocery list. Avoid getting carried away at Costco or big box stores.
2. Buy foods that are in season because they taste better, so you're more likely to finish them. 
3. Leaf to root eating. Try to consume all edible parts of a plant (cauliflower leaves, carrot greens, potato skins). Get ideas and recipes.
4. Bring older foods to the front of your fridge, and make leftovers visible. Or store food in the "Eat this first" storage area in your fridge, or label it so. Consider using online help like SuperCook to find recipes using items you already have in stock. 
5. Rescue foods that are about to go bad. Roast it, stew it, pickle it, mix it in fried rice or soup, bake it into bread, make it into a smoothie or the base for soup.... there are many creative ways out there to give your leftovers a new life.  Think of leftovers as culinary adventure. Watch: 4 meals we make with leftovers
6. Use the freezer to store leftovers, and remember to consume it. You can also start a "Catch-all bowl" in the freezer to store clean fruit and vegetable scraps, ready to use for a future soup base.
7. Feed others. Share with your friends and family!  

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Consider this...
Even the smallest actions: reflecting on food waste, avoiding overbuying, mindful of leftovers - are movements in the right direction, sowing the seeds of change.  

“It is a return to that simplicity which allows us to stop and appreciate the small things, to be grateful for the opportunities which life affords us, to be spiritually detached from what we possess, and not to succumb to sadness for what we lack.” Laudato Si' #222