What is the Food Waste Challenge?

The Food Waste Challenge provides the tools and resources to help you reduce waste. From learning easy ways to reduce waste at home, such as composting and simple non-toxic alternatives, to paying attention to your purchasing habits and understanding why it matters to buy local, we can all take steps towards the same goals:
reduce, reuse, recycle, and rethink.

Here's an overview of the program

Food Waste Challenge

Week 1

Tool of the week: Shop Smarter

  • Organize your fridge
  • Use a meal plan when shopping
  • Shop with a list, and stick to it
  • Buy only what you need, eat what you buy
Tips to Shop Smarter

Week 2

Tool of the week: Prep Smarter

  • Prep your veggies now so you can easily eat them later
  • Make an upside-down jar salad
  • Learn to pickle and preserve fresh food.
Tips to Prep Smarter

Week 3

Tool of the week: Store Smarter

  • Know what kinds of produce to keep in the fridge vs. pantry
  • Learn how to navigate use-by, sell-by, and expiration dates
  • Other smart food storage tips
Tips to Store Smarter

Week 4

Tool of the week: Strategies for Success

  • Engage your kids
  • Learn to quick-pickle
  • Buy and eat ugly produce
  • Discover your strengths
Tips for Success

The tools we use throughout the program

The Eat First Basket

Food Waste Tracking Cards

We encourage participants to measure, using either weight or volume, how much food they waste throughout the challenge.

(This does NOT include food that goes into the compost.)

Watch your numbers change throughout the 4 weeks!

By getting a better picture of exactly how much food is going to waste in your household, you'll be able to better create a strategy to minimize that waste, save money, and prevent unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions.

Click here to print out your Food Waste Tracking Cards.

Click here to fill out our online Food Waste Tracking Form.