I’ve been reading a lot about food waste recently.
It’s one of the biggest environmental threats facing our planet at the moment, with overflowing landfills releasing tonnes of methane as perfectly good edibles are discarded and left to decompose. Ronni Kahn is the founder of OzHarvest, and her recently released autobiography is both a wonderful read and an eye-opener. Did you know that the average Australian household throws away $3,800 of groceries per year (one in every five bags)? Almost half the fruit and veg produced are wasted, yet one in nine people, nearly 800 million of them, don’t have enough to eat…
As a family, we’re trying to do our little bit. We’ve been making a concerted effort to finish our leftovers, and all our leavings and other food waste is, as much as possible, fed to our backyard menagerie of chickens, worms and soldier fly larvae. I’ll try to write a separate post on what we’ve found works and doesn’t work, but until our council is able to offer us food waste collection, we’ll continue to process as much of it as we can here to keep it out of landfill.
These soldier fly larvae are an integral part of our backyard food recycling system!
After watching David Attenborough’s A Life on Our Planet, both Pete and Small Man declared that we needed to eat less animal products (not easy for a house of meat lovers, but we’re determined to try). Last week, instead of our usual chicken curry, we made this vegan version instead and it was delicious…
In keeping with our goal of reducing food waste, we picked up some of the vegetables for the curry from the AddiRoad Food Pantry. You might recall that I’ve written about them before, and that we recently made and donated over 150 masks to them…
Now, I’ve always been hesitant to shop there, believing that if I could afford to pay retail prices, then I shouldn’t compete with those that couldn’t. But when we dropped off our last batch of masks, Food Pantry Manager Damien encouraged us to do so. He explained that their main goal was preventing food waste, and also that when customers paid the asking place, it put them in a better position to give food vouchers to those in need.
The shop is set up on a points system, with each point charged at 50c. All items have a number written on them indicating how many points they’re worth. If you spend $5, you also get a free loaf of day old bread, one or two frozen dinners, and a bag of rescued fruit and veg which might otherwise have gone to landfill. Everything will be past its best before date, but still perfectly fine to eat, and by purchasing from them, you’ll be supporting their ongoing efforts to fight food waste.
Here are some photos I took of the shop…
And here’s what we picked up on our first visit…
If you still have qualms about taking food away from those who might need it more, then try my approach.
I go to the pantry just before it closes, so as to not compete with anyone who needs access to the service more than I do. Then I add $10 to my purchase price as a donation. It’s a win all around: I pay less, I help fight food waste, I don’t take away from anyone else, and I’ve donated enough to provide a box of food to a family in need.
Of course, if you’re not in the area and can’t shop there in person, you can still support AddiRoad by donating directly through their website. The organisation’s hashtag is #WeAreStrongerTogether, and I really do think that says it all! ♥
So true Celia, after reading your previous article I decided to shop at a rural Co-op who recycle all their fresh produce and perishables they don’t sell through their kitchen; as wonderful chutneys, fermented vegetables, butter, buttermilk and tallow.
Do you have the curry recipe posted somewhere? It looks delicious 😊 We are also trying to increase our plant based meals and trying to come up with new recipes.
I don’t think we have an equivalent here but I will look into that more carefully. The idea that we should eat less meat has been taken on board here too – and the near isn’t really being missed as much as expected 😊
What a great system! I have been reading a lot on food waste and waste reduction also. I am finding ways to reduce waste but still have a ways to go. Every little bit counts.
A great post. I’d felt the same about such food pantries. I’ll look into it around here. Best before dates are guidelines imo. Leftovers are our favourite food and I think sometimes we need to stetch those… also enjoyed by Diesel-Dog and the chooks… who are scratching to get much at all from the kitchen other than peelings, which we also need for the compost…
I love the idea of shopping at a place to avoid food waste! I have a local bakery thrift shop that sells bakery goods that are close to the sell by date, and it is AMAZING what can be found.
Jenna ♥
Stay in touch? Life of an Earth Muffin
I have been super lucky to have friends who are magnificent gardeners and I haven’t had to buy veggies for MONTHS and as I don’t eat meat I am so lucky re $ for food. We have a Grocery Outlet and great organic stuff there.
Thank you for this piece.
Another inspirational post Celia – thank you for the light you are shining into the world. 🙂
Could you please advise where to find soldier fly larvae to start a farm?
Thanks, Anne R
Anne, I don’t know, I’m sorry. We just put food in there and they come by themselves!
Great post as usual. Vege curry looks great & is one of my favourites at the local Thai. I do like this one too – which I am sure is nothing like the curries found in any tradition on the planet but you might care to look https://www.nigella.com/recipes/tomato-curry-with-coconut-rice
Our little grocery store has started to offer the ugly fruit and veg, perfectly good produce that doesn’t meet the standards in terms of looks. I’ve bought them many times but they don’t seem to be consistent in their offerings. Also, as our colder weather approaches, I save all of my clean veggie scraps, they make an excellent addition to my roasted chicken carcass stock (leftover bones from other meals). The veg and bones get a second chance and they make an awesome stock.
I boil up pumpkin and sweet potato peelings and the thick stalks of cauliflower and broccoli for my chooks and mix in any finely crushed eggshells. All get demolished. Also when on short caravanning holidays I save all the egg shells, coffee grounds and tea leaves in a plastic bucket to bring home for composting.
I have had the same qualms about shopping at my closest food pantry, thanks so much for sharing your approach to this dilemma! Now that the weather is warmer, the Soldier Fly larvae have moved into my compost bin again. They work through food scraps so fast! I’ve got composting worms in there too but the grubs are doing all the heavy lifting, it seems.
I find making broth out of my scraps and composting whatever I can makes my garbage output really minimal.
Love this blog! Thank you for sharing. Cindy xx
I waste very little food but know that the UK as a whole wastes vast amounts, much of it is thrown away by the supermarkets, though there are many initiatives set up now to try and get that food to those in need. I’m already pretty much vegetarian, just occasionally eating fish but my husband doesn’t think he’s been fed properly unless he has some form of animal protein on his plate!