5 Ways to Fight Food Waste This Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, 316 million pounds of food will be wasted across the U.S. Here are five tips that can help reduce food waste this year:

1. Plan ahead

Use this guide to help you plan how much food to purchase and prepare for your Thanksgiving feast depending on the number of guests you will be hosting.

2. Store Thanksgiving leftovers properly

If you have lots of leftovers post-Thanksgiving, make sure that you store them properly in order to extend their life. Check out the Save the Food guide that offers tips & tricks to make food last longer. Or, you can check out CSWD’s Fridge Guide that gives some great storage tips.

3. Donate food

Donate food to an organization that will make the most of it by feeding people in our community. In Chittenden County, these are a few organizations that accept food donations. You can also donate food to a local community fridge or little free pantry.

4. Turn leftovers into new creative dishes

There are many different recipes out there to help you give your Thanksgiving leftovers another life. From turning leftover stuffing into a quiche crust to this sweet potato turkey wrap for your workweek lunches. You can also use this recipe generator to find recipes based on the ingredients you want to use up.

5. Compost it

Food that is no longer edible can still serve a much better purpose than being wasted in a landfill. Consider backyard composting, bringing your food scraps to any CSWD Drop-Off Center, or signing up for a local pickup service.

You can bring your compost to a CSWD Drop-Off Center for only $1.00 per container up to 5 gallons, and no fee for compost if you are dropping off your household trash!