“Enjoy your meal!” the server says over their shoulder as they scurry off to care for another table. Before the plate is even fully down, my phone is a foot above the table, camera in 0.5 mode, sliding left and right and up and down to capture a picture, justifying my ridiculous habit by muttering to myself “phone eats first!” Once the shot is secured, the phone goes back in my purse and remains there for the rest of the meal until a dessert order arrives, and then the routine starts all over again.

Why I am compelled to photograph my food is a mystery. Occasionally I look back in my camera roll at the good eats I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy, but most images remain embedded in some album, never to be viewed again. And, ironically, some of the most visually appealing plates I’ve consumed were lackluster in taste, and the meals that I deemed unworthy of capturing turned out to be the most delicious. When I chose to let my phone eat first, my thoughts were on the photographic value of food, not its intrinsic value. I was ignoring the fresh water, human labor, land, energy, and sunlight that went into its creation. It is so easy to get caught up in the idea of picture-perfect food because it bombards us everywhere we turn. 

This idea plagues me in my everyday life too, especially when I go through my fridge at the end of the week. On Monday, when I swing open the door, I am pleased to see an organized array of crisp produce, perfectly stacked lunch containers, and snacks. As the week progresses, I find myself increasingly turning my nose up at softening strawberries, wilting greens, and crumbling hunks of cheese. Until my food waste internship this summer, I saw the trash as the unfortunate yet inevitable place for items like these. I had forgotten that the appearance of food does not necessarily equate to its taste and nutrition.

Fortunately, I have been able to combat this thinking, because the desire for good-looking food and the ability to make food look good are not mutually exclusive. By setting myself up for success with proper storage, keeping my fridge stocked with some good staples, and a little creativity, I found a new appreciation for even the most questionable items lurking in my fridge.

Proper Storage: Appreciating food starts with proper storage to extend its shelf-life and keep it vibrant and fresh longer. Here are a few places I keep foods so they look their best:

• Cool, dark, non-refrigerator place
  • Potatoes, hard squashes, onions, garlic, shallots
• Fridge crisper drawer
  • Leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, green beans, peppers, cucumbers, ears of corn
• In a glass of water in the fridge
  • Carrots, celery, asparagus, scallions
• On the counter
  • Tomatoes, citrus and stone fruit, apples, pears, bananas

Pantry Staples: Just as a wardrobe needs some good basics, food staples can jazz up leftover items. Some of my ride-or-die ingredients include:

• Rice wine vinegar
  • Fabulous for freshening up a sauce or making a quick pickle of veggies on their way out (I like to “quickle” cucumbers, carrots, and onions the most)!
• Mayonnaise
  • Hellman’s has a series of recipes called “Flexipes” that help use up what is left in the fridge (with a dollop of mayo, of course)!
• Sriracha
  • Sriracha is a perfect blend of acidity, sweetness, and a touch of heat that can take leftovers to the next level.
• Eggs
  • Omelets, frittatas, scrambles, oh my! Sauté wilted greens and some leftover onion, then crack in an egg or two for a nutritious kitchen-sink breakfast.
• Sourdough bread
  • There are very few things one cannot eat on top of a piece of bread. Need to finish some hummus? Pesto? Cream cheese? Jam? An avocado? You name it, you can probably smear it on a piece of bread. 

Creativity: I heard somewhere that food waste results from a lack of creativity, and I could not agree more. With these creative ideas, I now turn my fridge “uglies” into masterpieces:

• Treat my home kitchen like an episode of Chopped
  • Seriously, I pull out 4-5 things that need to be used up and then do some mental acrobatics to prepare them or try one of the many websites or apps that find recipes using a list of odds-and-ends items. With friends over, I can set a time limit and have someone shout “Chef, your time is up!” at the end.
• Find innovative ways to use scraps
  • Carrot peelings, onion tops, and dried-out celery stalks can be kept in the freezer until I’m ready to simmer them in water with herbs to make a delicious, from-scratch veggie stock.

While it’s not an overnight change, these days when I eat out or cook at home, I try to take a moment to appreciate everything that went into the dish. And I let myself – instead of my phone – eat first!

And always remember… Maine food is too good to waste.

-Kate P., Ahold Delhaize USA Summer Intern

I am a foodie who loves hot girl walks, curating Spotify playlists, and driving with the windows down.

The post “Phone Eats First” – How a desire for picture-perfect food drives wasteful behavior appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

Bananas, am I right? Seriously, they turn from green to brown in the blink of an eye. And berries go from firm and tasty to sad and mushy even faster!  Neither can be eaten and enjoyed as I originally intended, but are they really “bad” and ready to be tossed?

Lately, my mom has been doing something odd with these wayward bananas. She’s been putting them in a ziploc bag to freeze. I thought she was being too optimistic. If we weren’t going to eat these fresh but “past their prime” bananas at room temperature, we certainly weren’t going to eat them frozen. But this was not my mom’s plan. She wanted us to pull them out and use them in smoothies. 

As for the raspberries…lately I’ve been inspired to throw the less-than-perfect ones into my smoothies as well. Since becoming a food rescue intern, I have learned two very important things: these frozen fruit smoothies are delicious, and there’s a word that describes my (and my mom’s) process – upcycling. 

I imagine we’re all familiar with recycling. How many times have we seen that triangular symbol on some product or signage? If you take your used glass bottles and metal cans to the right place, the materials can be recycled to make something new. But what about our new term – upcycling? Instead of recycling, which involves breaking things down into raw materials and rebuilding them into something new, upcycling is about repurposing items into something even better. In the context of food, upcycling is basically a new term (officially defined in 2020) for an old practice. People have upcycled for generations: using old raspberries for jam, brown bananas for banana bread, mushy avocados for guacamole, etc. When something good is no longer fit for its current use, it may be perfect for a new use. 

Here’s an official definition from the Upcycled Food Association workgroup composed of representatives from Harvard, Drexel, the World Wildlife Fund, ReFED, and the Natural Resources Defense Council: 

“Upcycled foods…use ingredients that otherwise would not have gone to human consumption, are procured and produced using verifiable supply chains, and have a positive impact on the environment.”

The Upcycled Food Association broke down this definition into five requirements. Upcycled food:

1. Must be made from ingredients that otherwise would have gone to a landfill, composting, or animal feed 
2. Must turn the ingredients into an even better product 
3. Must be a new product intended for humans to eat 
4. Must have a transparent supply chain
5. Must have upcycled ingredients indicated on the label 

This definition is helpful because companies are becoming increasingly interested in upcycling. They’re doing what we do at home (but at a much larger scale). These efforts are important because edible food is often wasted when it is seen as unappealing in its current form. But upcycling is not about pinching your noise and eating food that you don’t want. It’s about turning these ingredients into something delicious. Fruits and vegetables that don’t look perfect are often rejected by retailers or left on the trees or in the field to rot. But with upcycling, that “ugly food” could be made into delicious sauces, jams, or frozen meals. For a new upcycling company here in Maine, check out Harvest Maine ().

I was excited to learn about upcycling because it means my frozen banana and raspberry smoothies are part of an important new movement. This is a term that policymakers can use to legislate better solutions to end food waste and to feed more people. Instead of composting legislation to manage food surplus that is no longer edible, upcycling legislation could allow the government to ensure that less-than-perfect food surplus goes to its highest and best use – feeding people (see fruit scraps to ). 

Upcycling is an exciting pathway to address the food we waste every day. It has already helped me reduce my food waste and eat better – keep those smoothies coming!

And always remember… Maine food is too good to waste.

–Kathryn B., Mitchell Center Student Intern

I’m a tea-drinking knitter and reader who loves nothing more than a book and a crackling fire on a snowy winter day. In the summer, you can find me hiking or swimming.

Citations

91���� Upcycled Food. (n.d.). Upcycled Food Association. https://www.upcycledfood.org/upcycled-food

Holcomb, R., & Bellmer, D. (2021, June 22). Could “Upcycling” Turn Food Waste Into Your Next Meal? EcoWatch; EcoWatch. https://www.ecowatch.com/upcycled-food-waste-ingredients-2653490146.html

Wright, J. (2021). 5 Ways USDA Science Reduces Food Waste. Www.usda.gov. https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2021/04/28/5-ways-usda-science-reduces-food-waste

The post Brown bananas and mushy raspberries – ripe for “upcycling”! appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

I admit it…I’m guilty of this. There have been times when I didn’t get a chance to finish my apple before embarking on a walk. Or, I hiked a trail and munched on that delicious fruit on the summit. The end result was always the same. After I ate the last bite of crisp sweetness, I faced the unpleasant prospect of carrying that sticky core all the way back to my house, or car, or wherever. To be honest, I just as often threw it into the woods. I figured it would biodegrade or be eaten. Either way, it would be gone. Out of sight, out of mind. At least, that was my attitude until a casual conversation forced me to reevaluate how I had been treating the natural world. 

It was late May, my senior year of high school. My classmates and I had one final project before we were free forever. One day, while we were working, I fell into a conversation with a friend (who also happened to be a Maine Guide). We were talking about the National Parks – places that attract huge numbers of nature-seekers. Our conversation centered around the question: does the number of park visitors need to be limited? On one hand, everyone deserves an equal opportunity to experience the outdoors. On the other hand, every visit erodes away at these places. My friend proposed a solution: more education about Leave No Trace Principles. At the time, I had never heard of these. But now, I can tell you that these are rules to minimize harmful human impacts on the outdoors. The rule that is relevant here is #3: Dispose of Waste Properly. Simply put, whatever you bring in, bring out. Yes, this includes food. Here’s why.

It makes a mess

We’re taught that food biodegrades. After all, composting is supposed to be great. Isn’t this the same thing? Not really. Compost is specifically designed to break down food quickly. Let me explain. Compost is not a pile of food scraps that becomes a pile of dirt. It is a recipe, a careful mixing of carbon-rich materials (“browns”), nitrogen-rich materials (“greens”), water, and air. And just like a recipe, you have to combine your ingredients in the right order, at the right time, and apply just the right amount of heat. Imagine instead of making your famous chocolate cake by mixing the flour and the eggs together, you just drop 2 eggs on the floor and a pound of flour on your counter. What is the problem there? Well, you didn’t make a cake, you made a mess. The measurements aren’t right, the ingredients aren’t in the same place, and it hasn’t been heated up to a temperature where it could actually bake. If you throw an apple core in the woods, you aren’t combining the appropriate amounts of browns, greens, air, or water. Your ingredients aren’t in the same place and the temperature isn’t hot enough for the materials to break down quickly. So– a mess. 

It’s bad for wildlife

But that apple core will break down…slowly. In the interim that hungry raccoon or deer might, in fact, get to it. Why is this a problem? A few reasons. First, some human food can make animals sick (like the M&Ms in the trail mix you dropped). Even if they won’t become sick, you’re still introducing foods that those species normally wouldn’t eat. Additionally, undigested seeds could introduce nonnative plant species to the area. Unfortunately, by dropping food you’re teaching them that your favorite walk, or hike, is a great place to get a meal. This tends to increase human-wildlife interactions and wildlife aggression. Perhaps none of this sounds like a big deal. So what if a raccoon gets an apple core? Or if my apple core is decomposing under a bush for a couple months? True– one person is unlikely to impact the entire ecosystem. And I thought this way, too. But in my conversation about Leave No Trace principles, my friend made an excellent point. I’m not the only one who takes these walks or hikes these trails. What happens if everybody does it? 4 million people visit Acadia every year . What if 4 million people chuck an apple into the bushes? I’d be dodging raccoons, squirrels, apple cores, and who knows what else. So no. We aren’t doing the environment a favor. In fact, we’re harming wildlife by throwing food just off the trail.

After that conversation, I became more aware of the need to clean up after myself. I figured the next time I hiked a trail, I could bring that apple core back down with me, all the way from the summit. I knew there was usually a trash can in the parking lot. I could put the apple core there, right? Wrong. Things that go in the trash don’t disappear. They just go somewhere else. In the case of food, they go somewhere worse. 

The secret danger of landfills

This environmental issue blindsided me when I became a Food Rescue MAINE intern. Food waste outside isn’t great. But, eventually, it will break down without too much incident (hopefully). But in a landfill? Landfills are deprived of oxygen (a key ingredient in compost!). This does not mean food won’t break down. Oh no, Nature finds a way. Food will just break down with an unfortunate byproduct – methane. In the atmosphere, methane is over 28 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. Food waste is responsible for over half of landfill methane emissions and landfills are the third largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States . Yikes. 

The magic of compost

So now what? I can’t put that apple core in the woods because it’s bad for the animals. I can’t put it in the trash because it’s bad for the climate crisis. Is there anywhere for food scraps to go? Yes. But first a little background on soil (Sorry, I have to – I took an entire class on this…). Soil is not a homogenous, brown mixture. It is full of organisms, water, air, and nutrients. Plants uptake nutrients from the soil to grow and they take those nutrients with them when they are harvested. Soil can’t just replenish its nutrients. So there’s the answer – my apple core should go in the compost. It will help return nutrients to the soil. But it gets better. Remember when I said that a key ingredient in compost is carbon-containing materials? Well, putting carbon back into the soil keeps it out of the atmosphere. A win-win.

I’m lucky to have a compost bin at home. However, I recognize that not all of us have the time or space to compost. If you do, great! Here’s a link to the . If you don’t, no worries. That’s where a curbside composting service could come in. Instead of putting your food scraps into your trash can, you could leave them in a separate bucket on the curb. Depending on the service, you may get a bucket of fresh compost for your trouble, or peace of mind that your food scraps are being put to good use. Either way, your food scraps aren’t attracting wildlife and they’re not producing methane gas. So what should we all do with those apple cores? Take them home and compost them. 

And always remember… Maine food is too good to waste.

–Kathryn B., Mitchell Center Student Intern

I’m a tea-drinking knitter and reader who loves nothing more than a book and a crackling fire on a snowy winter day. In the summer you can find me hiking or swimming.

Citations

The post Just pitch your apple core into the woods…or maybe not appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

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April 2022

November 2021 Raising awareness, inspiring action and developing tools to help reduce food waste in Maine (Mitchell Center feature)

November 3, 2021

August 2021 Lee to offer 8/31 webinar on reducing food waste in Maine (Mitchell Center News)

July 24, 2021

May 2021 ‘Maine food—Too good to waste’: Students lead the way to food waste solutions (Mitchell Center feature)

May 9, 2021

May 3, 2021  AP Covers Mitchell Center Campaign to Reduce Food Waste

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May 1, 2021

April 30, 2021

April 30, 2021 Pen Bay Pilot Advances Maine Food Too Good To Waste Campaign

April 27, 2021 Forecaster Reports on Portland Food Rescue Partnership with Mitchell Center

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April 22, 2021 Press Herald Reports on Portland Food Recycling Program Partnership with Mitchell Center

April 21, 2021 UMAINE Blackmer Lee Talk with Central Maine 91���� Municipal Food Recycling Projects

April 12, 2021 WABI Reports on Food Waste Solutions Summit

April 9, 2021

April 6, 2021

April 2020 Helping Maine Businesses Find Food Waste Solutions (Mitchell Center feature)

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In particular, we’d like to thank the Maine Dept. of Education and the teachers, staff, and students who participated in our 2023 Maine School Cafeteria Food Waste Study. Their work enabled us to show the importance of food waste education in reducing food waste and improving student nutrition – while also saving money and fighting climate change. Their efforts helped generate food waste awareness and action in entire school communities.

Governor Mills’ proclamation recognizes their achievement and encourages all Maine schools’ efforts to reduce food waste.

Maine K-12 schools have a special role in educating our next generation to reduce, recover, and recycle food, and this younger generation can help educate their families.

In recognition of Maine Food Waste Awareness Week, we would welcome your efforts to share the Proclamation broadly with your own communities and schools. Imagine the possible food waste-related events that could highlight Food Waste Awareness in your community activities:

• Help your schools add a Share Basket at breakfast and lunch meals – this can both reduce food waste and give food where needed.
• Highlight locations in your community that will take good, edible food donations.
• Challenge residents to collect and review their home food waste for one day – then give tips on how to reduce.

“I encourage all Maine people – young and old – to become aware of the wasted food in our homes, schools, and all around us, and to commit to stop throwing food away”.

Governor Mills, Maine Food Waste Awareness Week Proclamation

Please contact Susanne Lee if you have any questions or need any additional information. Visit our Food Rescue MAINE website for more tools and ideas. Your efforts show the importance of working together to make great things happen.

The post Governor Mills proclaims Maine Food Waste Awareness Week September 25-29, 2023 appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.