One of my personal pet peeves is food wastage. I’ve written a number of times about my own family’s tendency to let perfectly good food go to waste. We’ve certainly gotten better, but are still far from perfect.
Somehow, after a two week visit from my sister and her kids, (which peaked today with a fourth birthday party for my niece.) my refrigerator is somehow ridiculously crammed with food. New groceries, leftovers, staples. Name it and it’s in my fridge. It looks like the day after Thanksgiving. No joke.
It’s not even rotten stuff. (Except for some frighteningly odorous broccoli soup that will be refrigerated until garbage day.) It’s all perfectly good, there’s just way too much food.
So I’m issuing a personal challenge to see how long my family can go before we have to grocery shop again. (Except milk, gotta’ have milk for my tea.)
I’m thinking we can go at least two weeks. Easy. Maybe even three.
Food wastage is a huge world-wide problem, all the way from source to consumers. When so many people are living without, to let perfectly good food spoil is unacceptable.
Jonathan Bloom nicely covers the issues surrounding food wastage in detail on his website: wastedfood.com.
I’ll let you know how my Buy No Food Challenge is going. I may be serving some strange meals in a week or so, (stinky broccoli soup flambe anyone?) but if it clears out the fridge, it’ll be worth it.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
“When so many people are living without, to let perfectly good food spoil is unacceptable.”
Does this mean you’ll be spending your regular food budget amounts on staples to donate to those who are living without while you are living off your excess?
Otherwise, I’m unclear on what you’ll achieve to stop hunger. I understand that eating up food reduces landfill and wasted energy but not how it provides more for those who don’t have enough.
I think this is great idea and I wish you well – I love going through my store cupboards and creating some weird and wonderful recipes from it. Some of my best dishes have been made in this way 🙂
Are you growing fresh fruit and veggies at home? I could manage all the staple stuff for a few weeks, but not without fresh………
Good luck!
I’ve been working really hard on this for the past few months(Jonathan wrote about me on his Wasted Food blog, actually!), and happily, I’ve made a lot of progress. Still haven’t gotten down to zero waste, but hey! Progress is progress.
Have you bought any food yet?
Today I thought I had run out of food. Inspired by your blog though, I have avoided a trip to Tesco on a busy “mad rush after the bank holiday” and have decided that this week… I will take up your challenge, other than for milk and bread. I have always made soup with leftovers and am well versed in rubber chicken (seeing just how many meals it will stretch to!), but I think those lurkers in the back of the cupboard and fridge might make their way into the light this week as well.
A great blog, and also helping me with my diet as I am kept out of the kitchen whilst having a darn good read!