Thankful You're Thinking About Food Waste

Article courtesy of https://refed.org/

Dear Friend:

We are just a week away from one of the biggest holidays of the year – Thanksgiving. It's a special time built around the tradition of sharing food with family and friends.

At ReFED, our work to fight the loss and waste of food becomes especially important on Thanksgiving and throughout the entire holiday season. ReFED is the national leader in addressing food waste, and our data-driven approach helps businesses, innovators, policymakers, and more make the right decisions to eliminate waste from the farm to the fork. And Thanksgiving offers a real moment to think about just how much food is going to waste across the country….

Learn More about Food Waste and Thanksgiving Here

How can you make a difference? By being thoughtful about what you’re doing on Thanksgiving. Our Executive Director, Dana Gunders, has a few suggestions we hope you’ll incorporate into your planning:

• Calculate how much you'll need to serve to each person attending and purchase food accordingly. Use a tool like the "Save the Food" Guest-imator to tell you how much to make while accounting for all your side dishes and different appetite levels.

• Develop a leftovers strategy. Check with your guests beforehand to see if they'd like to take leftovers home with them, and cook to that amount. Make sure you have plenty of containers, aluminum foil, and other storage items to pack everything up.

• Clean out your freezer to make room for everything you're saving. Your freezer is a magic "pause" button for your food – if stored in proper containers, you can safely freeze Thanksgiving leftovers for months.