Reducing food waste is a creative way for communities

What can you do about food waste? A conversation with Shuggie’s chef David Murphy about how to fend off leftovers and make food out of “trash”

3 cups great northern beans, soaked, cooked in a flavorful vegetable stock. You can make a sub with chopped garlic, sundried tomatoes, Spanish anchovies, and herb stems.

There are a lot of ways to use leftover food. To help you get started, NPR asked Shuggie’s chef Murphy to share some ideas. Below you can find some of his creative yet simple recipes for using leftover items.

It will take a lot more restaurants doing this work, and a lot more cultural change among customers, to make a difference in food waste. It is true for eating out and at home. Reducing food waste is a huge climate solution, because it doesn’t matter if the shift happens or not.

“To look at the ugly food or the imperfect food, that it doesn’t have to be the best of everything, is a relatively new way for people to look at their food,” said Jordan Bow, the founder of the distributor Royal Hawaiian Seafood, and Shuggie’s main seafood source for oft-discarded fish parts like halibut cheeks and various types of bycatch. I am expecting the chefs to be creative and not just do what everyone else does.

Climate solutions was founded in San Francisco in 2022, by chef David Murphy and his partner, as part of their effort to get diners comfortable with imperfect ingredients. According to Abe, Shuggie’s has saved 41,000 pounds of food waste from the trash can in the roughly 2 1/2 years since it opened.

Source: One restaurant has a way to fight food waste: Making food out of ‘trash’

Bringing Food Independence Gardens to the Final Steering Group of Washington, D.C., March 26 – 26 April 2020 at 8 AM ET/MIPS

According to research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, people are spending more on eating out in this country than they are at home, and the restaurant industry was responsible for almost 10 million tons of leftover food in 2022, according to 2022 data from ReFED.

Methane traps more heat than carbon dioxide, which causes global warming. Human made methane is the largest source of emissions and comes mostly from fossil fuels, food waste and agriculture.

But if everyone ate fare that might otherwise be thrown out — say, weird animal parts or milk that’s close to its sell-by date — we’d significantly reduce the impacts of human-caused climate change.

Climate change is affecting our food. NPR is dedicating a week to stories and conversations about the search for solutions.

There are dozens of sites across the city called Food Independence Gardens, or FIGs. To date, the organization has given away tons of food to people and families throughout Pierce County.

David Thompson is an urban farmer in Washington who wants to connect people to fresh fruits and vegetables.

Community-Led Solutions to the Growing Problem of Food Waste at the Wesley School: A Reflection from a Community-Like Approach

Paula Moran spoke about people who do this every day to make a living. “If you come out and you volunteer one day a year, big deal, but at least it gives you an appreciation of how hard people work.”

Last fall, after an unseasonably wet and unpredictable growing season, volunteers gathered at Kimball Fruit Farms, located at the New Hampshire–Massachusetts border, to glean. The process involves picking leftover produce to give away to those in need.

Where that compost ends up can also have a powerful impact. The almond orchards outside the city are supported by food waste collected from residences in the city.

As a result of California’s food waste recycling law, it would have been easier for the staff to throw the food waste into the bin.

The K-8 students at The Wesley School in North Hollywood adorned a series of 5-foot containers with a giant banner that reads: “5,220 lbs of food waste saved from landfills.”

Below are a few community-led solutions to the latter. Lots of powerful changes can start at home, but sometimes the scale of the problem benefits from a community-wide approach.

Source: Creative ways communities are reducing food waste

Recovery of Oyster Reefs on Alabama’s Coast by Climate Change During the 1970s and 1990s. I. The Species of Alamos

Oyster reefs on Alabama’s coast, like many others in the Gulf South, have taken a beating from climate change. More oysters grow in their place when the shells are returned to the water. They filter and improve the water quality; give a home to fish, crabs, and other animals; and help with erosion by providing natural protection to the shoreline.