Movin’ Out

College move out day: a boon for townies in the market for desk chairs, small rugs and smaller fridges. It provides a fabulous opportunity for food donation, one that they’re taking advantage of at Vanderbilt.

The same goes for UConn. There, the Office of Environmental Policy is encouraging donations by calling upon the school’s hoops pedigree photo by signalstation via creative commonsthrough the “Give and Go” program. The more I think about it, that’s a really clever name.

All the move out food collection I’ve seen only accepts non-perishable items. That’s probably for the best, but it means an abundance of one thing: ramen noodles.

Also, I noticed that UConn’s list of possible student-donated items includes vacuums. Ha. Dorm room cleaning–that’s a good one.

May 7, 2009 | Posted in College | Comments closed

The Minimalist on Maximizing Food Life

To paraphrase Kingsolver: Bittman, Minimalist, Awesome.

I was very excited to see Mark Bittman’s piece on freezers as a way to prolong food and avoid waste. And after reading it, I was not disappointed.

I love that he used the words “reduce food waste” in his opening paragraph. And that the article is so user-friendly. Basically, Bittman, a.k.a. The Minimalist, advises readers to use the freezer in two ways:  

The first: take raw ingredients you have too much of — or whose life you simply wish to prolong — and freeze them. The second: take things you’ve already cooked — basics like stock, beans, grains and the like, or fully cooked dishes — and freeze them.

Also, Bittman tells us to think of frozen food as being in “suspended animation.” In other words, you’re basically delaying food’s decay. But that only lasts so long, thus:

Use what you freeze, within weeks if possible, but certainly before the next harvest rolls around. This isn’t so much a question of safety — frozen food will rarely go “bad” — but of quality.

Finally, The Minimalist leaves us with this tip to help avoid intra-freezer food waste:

One more thing, easy to overlook and impossible to overrate: Label. It is incredible how much things grow to resemble another in the freezer.

May 6, 2009 | Posted in Household | Comments closed

Compost Awareness Week

Were you aware that it’s International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW)? If not, now you are. 

Like their British brethren, the US Composting Council is spreading the word this week. In addition to their ideas for ICAW, the Composting Council has a whole bunch of useful links. Here are some helpful resources for would-be composters and lessons for teaching composting in the classroom.

photo by norman ack (via creative commons)On that note, check out the winning entry to the poster contest designed by a 5th grader.

I can’t say that ICAW was on my radar, but I have been composting up a storm lately. Must be the increased produce available in the spring and summer. Also, I just finishing digging up some nice, dark “finished” compost to use in my veggie garden.

Not only does composting prevent harmful methane emissions from landfilled food, it puts the nutrients back into the food chain. It’s a total win-win. It’s “Recycling the Way Nature Meant it to Be.”

And in case you think this movement isn’t spreading, hear this: By next year, you could be composting Sun Chips bags.

May 5, 2009 | Posted in Composting, Personal | Comments closed

Heeding the Call

A week ago, I put out a call for suggestions on what to do with the excess after being given a whole lotta pimiento cheese loaf. Many of you were nice enough to write in–thanks!–so I suppose it’s only right to fill you in on the results.

A few folks suggested various cheese sauces. Being fairly lazy and somewhat busy (like most of you), I went the quick route. I stuck a wedge of the mousse-like pimiento loaf in a bowl and microwaved it. Slow Food it wasn’t.

I mixed the sauce with some ziti and slices of quickly-browned chicken sausage and that was that this:

pronto pimiento pasta

We’ll call it Pronto Pimiento Pasta. It won’t win any Beard Awards, but it wasn’t too shabby.

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Along these lines, if you have a food item you’re not sure how to use, drop me a line: wasted food [at] gmail. I may periodically pass along these requests to you readers, either via the blog or Twitter.

May 4, 2009 | Posted in Household, Personal | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Road Foodsters Jane and Michael Stern were discussing their pizza-eating preferences on last weekend’s The Splendid Table when the conversation turned to uneaten crusts. Jane is a serial pizza bone leaver, but that hubby Michael is the beneficiary. Then host Lynne Rossetto Kasper announced that she’s not above asking her fellow diners if they’re planning to eat their crust carcasses. Good times.
photo by Dan4th via Creative Commons— —

And Rossetto Kasper didn’t stop there, penning her way into my heart via this advice on storing different kinds of foods.
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It was a big food waste news week for my alma mater, Wesleyan University. In addition to announcing their impending traylessness, a student in the local Food Not Bombs chapter was fined for serving free, donated food. More specifically, for violating a cease and desist order they received because they prepare food in an unlicensed kitchen.

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Nothing like a little gleaning article to warm the heart…

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Brilliant: many colleges require students to buy meal plans. And then these points expire at the end of the year. Given those two facts, a group at Arizona State is asking students to buy canned goods for donation with their soon-to-expire points.

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Finally, don’t forget that today is International Sunflower Guerilla Gardening day. Why? Just because.

May 1, 2009 | Posted in College, Friday Buffet, Hunger, Restaurant | Comments closed

Trayless Times and a Neat Idea

Two items of business today:

1. The New York Times found the idea of trayless dining fit to print. While I’d hoped for a bit more attention on just how much food waste can be avoided, I thought the writer did a nice job reporting the topic. And I really enjoyed this seldom-discussed rationale for traylessness:

Dr. Spina, of the college food service association, cited another benefit: “preparation for the cocktail-party circuit” by having to balance dishware and cutlery. “You eventually have to learn how to hold your hors d’oeuvre and cocktail in one hand while making animated conversation with the other,” he said, “so it’s a life lesson.”

2. I wish I’d thought of this:

April 30, 2009 | Posted in College, Household, Trayless | Comments closed

California Dreamin’

Because there are so few legislative effort to reduce food waste, any activity on that front jumps to the front of my radar.

On that note, there’s news from the California Senate. The Feed the Hungry Bill, a.k.a. SB 35, passed a key committee vote yesterday. That means it’s that much closer to becoming law.California state capitol by andreas pagel via creative commons

That said, SB 35 should pass, because it’s a *lighter* version of last year’s bill that would have allowed catering customers to require that their leftovers were donated. After encountering stiff opposition from the food industry last session, the bill’s champion, Senator Jenny Oropeza is attempting to bring about change in a few distinct steps.

Still, it’s a step in the right direction toward increased catering donations. And I really like the idea of creating a state-wide database of food recovery groups who will collect and/or accept edible donations. We need to make that happen in every state!

April 29, 2009 | Posted in Legislation | Comments closed

Wesleyan To Drop Tray

I’ve stopped noting when individual schools go trayless because it has become too hard to keep track (a great problem to have, of course). But I have to make an exception here with the news that my alma mater, Wesleyan, is going trayless next fall.

That said, I’m curious what the heck took such an environmentally aware campus this long. The Connecticut school now has Trayless Tuesdays, but lags behind hundreds of U.S. colleges and universities that have eliminated trays in all-you-can-eat settings to reduce food waste.

The full-time traylessness announcement sparked a fairly typical dialogue in the comments section of this post. Some of the comments are well put, others less so. I have to admit, I enjoyed #27.

On the topic of financial savings, though, I would hope that the students hold the administration’s collective feet to the fire. Since the students’ small sacrifice will result in less food being purchased, they should benefit, too. The school probably won’t lower board rates, but something like increased local or organic offerings or a pledge not to increase board prices next year sounds right.

April 28, 2009 | Posted in College, Energy, Trayless | Comments closed

Catering comes a knockin’

My neighbor had a catered party on Thursday. As with most catered affairs, there were plenty of leftovers. I know because our neighbor asked my wife and me if we’d would put any of it to good use. Umm…Yes. (I don’t think she knows about this blog.)

For us, it was a total jackpot. Sort of like being a freegan, only without the effort or the food safety fears. We brought hors d’oeuvres to our friends’ house on Friday and basically enjoyed the food throughout the weekend.

There were chicken and beef skewers, stuffed mushrooms, hummus and a mystery appetizer that was pretty tasty. The amount of food illustrated just how much extra food catering companies bring to an event, deathly afraid of running out of anything. Anecdotally, I’ve heard that they plan for 3 to 10 percent extra.

It also drove home the idea that the caterers probably couldn’t have donated the food to a soup kitchen or food pantry. Unless the items had been served by catering staff, it wouldn’t be acceptable from a food safety standpoint.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean catering clients have to toss this excess. Customers can repurpose the food. Or give the goods to their neighbors, who’ll probably enjoy it.

the pimiento cheese loafAnyway, after a busy weekend of eating, only this pimiento cheese loaf remains. We’ve been nibbling on it for a few days and it seems like we’ve barely made a dent. That’s it in the photo, after some significant eating.

Because it’s basically flavored cream cheese, you can’t eat too much of it straight. And one can only eat so many crackers with spread. So I’m throwing it out to you guys–what could we make with this pile o’ pimento? How can we repurpose it?

April 27, 2009 | Posted in Events, Personal | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

The Econovore and I may disagree on how to avoid it, but we both abhor waste. I’d love to have a beer with her, but I’m sure I’d get stuck with the tab. Oh well, it’d probably be worth it to get a few of her “flexipes” that could preclude so much waste.

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photo by sixes and sevensThis journalist really has the food environmentalism thing covered. Makes sense, because her newspaper “covers Prince Edward Island like the dew!”

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I’m really enjoying Food Waste Focus, the blog from LeanPath Inc. It’s a very ‘inside baseball’ look at how retail food outlets can cut their waste. For example: condiment waste.

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There’s some pushback against traylessness at New Mexico Tech and it centers on them having *smallish* trays. Hmm…that’s hard to stomach when contrasted to the work of Feed St. Louis at Wash U.

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You’ve got to really dig through this bizarre post to find it (check the comments), but here’s Carnival Cruise director John Heald on food waste:

As we discussed a few months ago here in the blog the gala buffet has been discontinued. I know it was popular but the food waste was extraordinary and while many liked to look at the carvings and food sculptures not too many actually wanted to eat anything. So, along with the other late night buffets, we stopped serving them

April 24, 2009 | Posted in College, Food Recovery, Friday Buffet, International, Trayless | Comments closed