Ending Food Waste
This week’s challenge is:
“Today I do not waste food.”
In 2012, the National Resources Defense Council of the U.S. concluded that Americans waste 40% of their food. Food is wasted at the farm level, between harvest and sale, during processing, during distribution, in grocery stores, in restaurants and in our homes. The study also reported that American’s throw out 25% of the food and beverages they buy. You can learn more about these statistics at: Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill
Many children in my generation grew up with parents who demanded that they eat their food because of the starving kids in China. As a result, many of us learned to tune out that message and disregard the fact that there is some truth to that way of thinking. I believe it is important for us to become responsible citizens of the world.
That does not mean we should force ourselves or our children to eat when we/they aren’t hungry. It is also not about shaming people into cleaning their plates. Instead, I think we should focus on how much food we buy, how much we cook, and how much we put on our plates. Children will be more likely to finish eating their food if they are given small portions. They can always ask for more if they are still hungry after they finish the original serving. That is true for adults as well.
While these are U.S. statistics and may be higher than those in other countries, I doubt we are the only country with the problem. This week, for 1, 2, 3 days or longer focus on not wasting food.
Sometime during the week, write a post about some aspect of this topic or about experiences you had when you focused on ending food waste. Feel free to use whatever form you desire: i.e., prose, story, poem, photograph, etc. (If you don’t have a blog, please share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section below.)
General Prompt Information:
New prompts will be posted at 5 a.m. (PST) every Wednesday.
Since it is easier to make behavioral changes if we focus on them one day at a time, each of the weekly challenges will start with “Today, I focus on…….” It will be up to you to decide how long you want to focus on a particular challenge— one, two, three days or even longer. At some point during the week, publish a post that relates in some way to the subject of the week.
Link your post back to this prompt post. If the pingback doesn’t work, then leave the link to your post in the comment section below. Be sure to include “Challenge for Growth Prompts” as one of your tags.
Throughout the week, I will publish the links for the posts that were created as the result of this prompt. I will also post the links from those who participated the previous week. That way they will be seen by anyone who comes to this page.
This week’s contributors to: Ending Food Waste
Challenge for growth/food waste- Annette’s Place
Food Waste: More Information to Ponder- Living, Learning and Letting Go
How about you?
Last week’s contributors to: Message to a Child
I Love You…- Living, Learning and Letting Go
Living, Learning and Letting Go 
That’s a good idea on portion sizes for children; my granddaughters’ sometimes look rather daunted at what’s set before them; as if it were some sort of challenge to finish it all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha, I had to laugh at that one…my problem is I clean up my plate too often because I love eating:) but when the children were growing up I would sit at the table and wait for them to finish…then what they could not finish I would scrape onto a plate and there was usually enough for a meal for me. I learned to do that so I would eat less…haha…my plate and their left overs.:)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Funny… They learned the value of finishing the food even if it was by getting someone else to eat it! 🙂
LikeLike
My daughter was the smartest eater…just ate what filled her then stopped. I don`t think they remember that they were toddlers but it helped me to stop overeating…
LikeLike