Passover and Pantries

It’s Passover, and many Jews observing the holiday will have just cleaned out their chametz (or hametz), the breads, grains and leavened goods.

In her fabulous piece on the Well blog, Karen Barrow gives her take on the practice. Or, if anthropomorphic food is more your speed, Mr. Matzah also explains the idea.

Whether you’re gearing up for Passover, Easter or neither, a little spring pantry photo by drazincleaning can’t hurt. Taking stock of the foods you bought but didn’t use can be instructive for avoiding future waste. Barrow uses the occasion as a chance to reflect on her food-buying habits.

The problem in my kitchen are the fad-foods bought to satisfy random cravings. They lose their appeal after a few days and end up sticking around too long.

Her words confirm an old Garbage Project belief, that impulse buys and items not often purchased lead to waste.

I can’t criticize religious or cultural practices that cause food waste, but I will say that not all Jews throw out or burn their leavened foods each spring. There are different levels of observance, both personally and officially (Reform, Conservative and Orthodox).

When I was growing up, my dad “sold” our chametz to a colleague for a symbolic buck. While the food remained in our cupboard, it didn’t belong to us until my dad “bought” back the items, thus restarting that glorious flow of Entenmann’s cookies and Oreos.

One thing I can say for sure: Stop Snitchin!

April 9, 2009 | Posted in History and Culture | Comments closed

Studying Traylessness

I was talking with food psychology guru Brian Wansink yesterday (he of the portion studies involving refilling bowls, different shaped glasses and stale popcorn). Back at Cornell after his USDA stint, Wansink casually dropped the news that he just started a two-part study on trayless dining.

courtesy of Cornell Food and Brand LabMy ears perked up as Wansink described how he and his crew in the Food and Brand Lab will study two dinners where Cornell’s Purcell Hall will serve the same foods. Monday was the first night (the control) and the second (without trays) will be later in April.

The study will assess the amount and kinds of foods wasted by weighing and categorizing it. The study will track whether students take less of a certain foods without a tray, by tallying wasted desserts, salads and meats. Researchers will also interview students clearing their plate(s).

While previous studies and anecdotal reports have assessed the amount of food waste reduction, nobody has considered trays’ effect on healthful eating. Until now.

Wansink’s study will do that by ascertaining whether traylessness changes the amount of food students actually consume and their nutritional balance. For instance, without trays, do students they take less salad or dessert? Do they take less variety, eating a less balanced meal? Stay tuned.

In the meantime, you really should check out Wansink’s book, Mindless Eating. It’s a fascinating look the decisions (conscious and subconscious) behind what we ingest.

April 8, 2009 | Posted in Trayless | Comments closed

Portion Distortion

About a year ago, T.G.I. Friday’s launched their “Right Portion, Right Price” menu, which I applauded. Other restaurants are finally following suit.

In a rare bit of positive recession news, cheaper, smaller portions are on offer at many chains, including–drum roll, please–The Cheesecake Factory.

photo by yatenkaiouh via creative commonsThe purveyor of waste-inducing portions recently started offering smaller plates priced from $3.95 to $6.50. I was all set to offer some praise until I read this quote from Cheesecake’s marketing chief:

“It’s a great value for folks who may not have as much money to dine out as they used to,” said Mark Mears. “At the Cheesecake Factory, we don’t really do anything small, so the portion sizes are actually pretty generous.”

Cringe.

Meanwhile, Chipotle now has a “Low-Roller Menu.” It’s not the most flattering phrasing for something as normal as ordering a reasonably-sized meal. But if frugal really is chic, than I guess customers won’t mind. We shall see.

Naturally, these tweaks are all about business, not cutting waste. But hopefully the latter will be an unintended consequence. Hey, something positive has to come out of this recession. And if it’s smaller portions at restaurants, well…that’s a start.

April 7, 2009 | Posted in Restaurant | Comments closed

Serving Waste

While we’ve talked about traylessness for a while, that’s not the only way to reduce college food waste. It appears that whether or not the food is self-serve or dished out by cafeteria staff makes a world of difference. At least it did at East Tennessee State.

One dining hall at the Johnson City school switched to staff service and found that it cut waste in half. Unfortunately, the article fails to explain exactly how they prevented so much waste, so we’ll have to speculate:

photo by nathan rein via creative commonsFirst, students are more likely to overindulge when they’re serving themselves. It’s the classic eyes vs. stomach conundrum.

On a similar note, a little outside influence goes a long way. Students may not take three scoops if they have to ask someone else for it.

Third, there’s less cross-contamination. For example, someone uses the soup ladle to spoon out mashed potatoes, leading to workers not being able to reuse the spuds the next day.

On the flip side, students being served might receive more than they’d like. Light eaters might want less than the standard dollop. And it prevents students from taking the specific piece they’d want. For example, a crusty edge versus a middle piece of lasagna.

But staff service isn’t necessarily a blunt method. When I visited St. Joseph’s College, I was impressed that the staff asked diners how much they wanted. It was sort of like the Subway approach, with the staff serving as lunch line artists.

What’s your take on self- versus staff-service?

April 6, 2009 | Posted in College | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

While we’re all fired up about Seattle, let’s not forget how progressive San Francisco’s composting program is.

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I’m not quite sure what to think when a conscious food squanderer writes about changing her ways. I’m still trying to remain calm after struggling through the first part of her column.Polish coat of arms. Image by djukami via creative commons

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There’s a new campaign to avoid waste in Poland: “Don’t Waste Food. Get Rid of Old Habits.” I’m sure it’s catchier in Polish.

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Glad to hear about what Waste (not Weight) Watchers are doing at UCLA. Hope they keep it up!
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Finally, color me gobsmacked (in a good way): Households from York and North Yorkshire (UK) cut their food losses by 79 percent in the “What Not to Waste” challenge.

April 3, 2009 | Posted in College, Composting, Friday Buffet, Household, International | Comments closed

Veggie Trader Q & A

This Tuesday, I wrote about online food swapping sites. Another such site, Veggie Trader, has only been operating for a few weeks, but is already creating some buzz. Rob Anderson, one of the site’s Portland-based creators, was nice enough to answer a few questions:

How’d you come up with the idea for Veggie Trader?

A few years back we started noticing all the excess stuff growing in our neighborhood and going to waste. It was everywhere. While we think splattered plums on the sidewalk make for interesting abstract art, we do believe fruit has a higher calling.  We think much of the problem is folks don’t know what to do with their super productive orange tree. Or they plant too many beans, basil, or kale. We figured Veggie Trader would give people a forum to help put their backyards to maximum use.

What’s your vision for the site?

Next time you’re out for a walk, take a look around. There’s a wealth of food growing right in our own backyards. People love to garden. We plant fruit trees, grape vines and fuss over our summer tomatoes. But too often much of what we grow ends up wasted. At the height of the harvest season, there are only so many tomatoes or squash one family can consume.

The idea behind Veggie Trader is to bring people together to share in the bounty and put it all to good use. Gardeners can use the website to trade for variety, find charities to donate to, or even sell their excess to make a few extra dollars. Those simply looking for local food can quickly get in touch with neighbors who have it.

image courtesy of Veggie TraderWho does the cool art and do lemons really lament their wrinkles?

Yes, they do! Lemons just want to be useful. They want to be enjoyed and squeezed in the prime of life… The art is entirely the handiwork of Tam, one of the creators of the site.

What was the first trade/sale?

It’s early yet and we don’t monitor trades, but we intend to make a place available on the site soon where people can share their experiences with us.  It will be interesting to see what people say, and we can’t wait to hear their stories.

What has been the most popular item?
This time of year, seeds and starts seems to be the most popular listings.

Any funny anecdotes, thus far?

More like a quote: “I wish I had this last year so I didn’t have a yard full of raccoons getting drunk off my fermenting plums.”

In your mind, is there a critical mass for how many users you need?

We’re only a couple weeks old and just want to get the word out so people know they now have a place to share their extra veggies or find local food. We think it’s a great idea and hope and expect it to grow and succeed. Over 600 people have registered for the site in just the past week, and there are over a couple dozen posts so far. A lot of people are telling us they can’t wait to come back and list their produce once the growing season really kicks in.  Right now, we’re encouraging people to post what they have and what they’re looking for.

How far do you think people will travel to swap or buy produce?

No idea, but we designed Veggie Trader in the hopes of bringing people together in their local communities. However, one person did ask how she might search the entire country for produce instead of simply by zip code.  We told her how she could do this, but noted traveling across the country is a long way to go for homegrown fruits and veggies!

Is the action thus far just in warm weather states?

We’ve seen people registering and posting listings all across the country. It’s hard to determine a pattern just yet though.  I can say a lot of people from Southern California and Arizona have visited the site.  Then again, we seem to be getting a lot of people registering in Ohio as well.

Did you consider starting in one location and expanding to different cities slowly?

At first we thought about starting up just in our home base of Portland, Oregon.  But then we realized Veggie Trader can be just as useful in Austin, Denver, Los Angeles, or anywhere in the country. There’s been a tremendous amount of interest from all over.

We have lots of changes we plan to make to Veggie Trader to make it better and easier to use.  If people have suggestions, we encourage them to contact us via the site and let us know how we can make it a better
resource.

April 2, 2009 | Posted in Food Recovery, Garden, Household, Q & A, Tree Gleaning | Comments closed

Trays Abolished!

Huzzah!

Before lighting out for Europe, President Obama issued an executive order banning the use of cafeteria trays in federally-funded all-you-can-eat facilities. All colleges and universities that accept government money will have until August to cease using trays or risk losing their funding and, possibly, accreditation.

Sorry to say it, but…April Fool’s!! Oh well. Maybe when I’m appointed Food Waste Czar…

Not a fabrication: Princeton is contemplating going trayless. The New Jersey school held a trayless dinner at Forbes Dining Hall last week and will host another this month before coming to a final decision.

Hopefully Princeton can succeed where their Ivy League brethren at Harvard have stumbled. The Cambridge school experimented with Trayless Thursdays last year, but school administrators terminated the idea that spring–talk about April fools!

During Princeton’s trayless dinner, diners were polled on the experience. A whopping 82 percent were in favor of the idea, although those numbers might be a bit distorted. Being asked if you’re in favor of something by someone from Greening Princeton might lead to students telling pollsters what they want to hear.

Still, it’s encouraging stuff and that’s no joke.

April 1, 2009 | Posted in General, Trayless | Comments closed

Exchanging Food Online, soon?

The Dell Social Innovation Competition is on right now. The $50,000 competition calls on college students worldwide to come up with ideas to change our planet. A humble goal, but a noble one.

Anyway, one of the entries proposes to link food donors with food banks and soup kitchens via the Web. This joint venture by students at Berkeley and Texas is a fabulous idea (although not an original one). It would create a site, Food2.org (a model is up now), to “close the information gap that prevents fresh nutritious foods from reaching hunger relief organizations.”

image courtesy of RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at Univ. of TexasThe entry is now a semi-finalist, but could use all the help it can get. It’s up against some amazing ideas like SOccket, a soccer ball that harnesses the energy from play for use later as a power source (Note to family: that’d make a sweet birthday present, eh??)

Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but I should say that Shared Harvest has built this kind of online exchange for a few states and municipalities. But I think there’s room for some competition. And there’s always room for idealism.

No matter who’s behind it, the hardest part of a food exchange site will be getting both donors and recipients to visit regularly. Once that occurs, it’s golden.

March 31, 2009 | Posted in College, Food Recovery, Hunger, Technology | Comments closed

Seattle Steps Forward

It might feel like any other Monday to you, but it’s a momentous one. After much buildup, Seattle’s mandatory curbside composting begins today!

From now on, Seattleites who live in single family homes must separate their food and yard waste from their regular trash. This organic waste will then be collected weekly in a green bin and composted by Cedar Grove. (Previous, voluntary collection had been every other week.)

photo by Modern Times via Creative CommonsAs far as I know, it’s the first such case of mandatory food waste collection. Let’s call it compelled composting. And it makes sense that it’s happening in Seattle, which began curbside recycling in 1988.

I like that the city is also employing a carrot: Households have an incentive to reduce their regular garbage because the smaller the container, the less households pay.

The whole thing seems so…enlightened. The city even has a Web site with plenty of tips on food waste collection. The do’s and don’ts are clearly spelled out. As this poster depicts, meats and cheeses can be composted. And finally, no more landfilling of pizza boxes!

Oh, and if you already compost at home, you’re exempt from collection. The city site also provides resources for novice composters on their site.

If there’s one thing I’d like to see changed, it’s getting apartment and condo dwellers involved. Ditto for commercial customers. But all things in due time. For today, let’s just appreciate that there are 30,000 more food waste collection bins in use.

Update: Here’s the local TV news’ coverage of Monday’s changes.

March 30, 2009 | Posted in Composting, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Things are looking grim for a potential California bill that would allow catering customers to demand that their excess food be donated. After having her bill rebuffed last year, State Sen. Jenny Oropeza has decided to take a slow steady approach this year. It seems like a victory for the loose coalition of intertia, fear and apathy.

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Would grocery shopping every other week reduce your food waste? Lifehacker thinks it might.

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When colleges and universities go on break, they often have to throw away large amounts of food. A student group at the University of Kansas called Daily Bread is rectifying that situation.photo by bradleygee via creative commons

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It’s not easy to get estimates on the reduced water and energy use when schools go trayless (from not washing trays). This article posits that Worcester’s Holy Cross expects to save 900 gallons a day!

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East Bay homeowners who want to donate backyard fruits or vegetables can do so via Gifts From Our Gardens, a program that brings volunteers to individuals’ yards.

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Finally, maybe I should get a sock puppet to help spread the message? I have a real soft spot for England’s fictional French chef Gordon Le Rotter and his sous chef/sock puppet Pierre.

March 27, 2009 | Posted in Food Recovery, Friday Buffet, Legislation, Supermarket, Trayless, Tree Gleaning | Comments closed