Food Waste Challenge
by Chloe Bradman, 26/03/2019
GREEN IMPACT CHALLENGE: A WEEK ON FOOD WASTE
One of the central issues that we are trying to raise awareness about as part of our Green Impact project this year is food waste. So with that in mind - I attempted to go a whole week only eating food that would’ve otherwise been binned. This included food from the reduced section in supermarkets, other surplus food I could get hold of and anything that I already had in my cupboards (preferably that needed using).
All of the meals that I created throughout the week were plant-based, although there were still LOADS of surplus meat and dairy products that were available in every shop I visited.
Finally, being the eco-freako that I am, I usually actively avoid plastic packaging in any way that I can. With this challenge heavily involving supermarkets and a limited choice of packaging, I figured I wasn't going to be able to avoid it as much as I normally would. I came to the conclusion that for this challenge, I'd rather have the plastic going to waste rather than FOOD wrapped in plastic, too.
With that boring stuff out the way, strap in to the story of my carb-heavy week of waste…
DAY 1 – Monday
To kick off the challenge, I started at The Wellbeing Cafe for my dinner. As per usual, I inhaled my food before remembering to take a picture, so below is a collage of everything that was up for grabs (yum).
This week there was a whole load of bread that would’ve been wasted – rather working in my favour - so I took a loaf that would make up my breakfast for the week. It was an 'extra special' seeded loaf by Warburton's - only one day past it’s 'best before' date - SCANDALOUS!
I also brought my lunch box that I was able to fill with more leftovers for lunch.
You can find out more about the lifesaver that is Wellbeing Cafe and what they do in one of our other articles here or get in touch by visiting their Facebook group.
Day 2 - Tuesday
Breakfast, as expected, was a humble tea and toast duo and lunch was leftover veggie pasta.
As 2pm hit, the hunger pangs kicked in and I was intrigued to see what the reduced section at Sainsbury's Local would offer at such a rogue hour… 10 minutes later, £3.11 lighter and four items that would last me the next 18 hours: a pot of melon, a bag of stir fry veg, a posh bean salad and a lemon (I clearly picked the essentials).
Dinner, then, was a vegetable fried rice type thing using the veg I'd bought, leftover rice from Wellbeing Cafe and some frozen peas.
DAY 3 - Wednesday
Wednesday's toast saw an exotic twist with accompaniment of the 49p melon pot and lemon water - treat myself well, don't I?
For lunch, I had the second round of a simple chickpea dahl I'd made on Monday using ingredients I had in the cupboard, and the spring greens were found in Tesco's reduced section LAST WEEK - still in good condition, too!!
Food-shopping on Wednesday was amazing! We visited the Sharehouse Market, a donation-based surplus food market - they piled up a whole crate full of glorious waste food for me, including pasta, 2 lots of roast potatoes, 2 packs of pitta bread, hummus, a garlic pizza bread and the biggest bunch of rhubarb.
We also visited the big Tesco round the corner to find 3 huge reduced sections - it was a dream (I definitely got too excited about this).
I spent just over £10 on everything.
Wednesday afternoon was spent making a rhubarb and apple crumble from my purchases in the afternoon - my sweet tooth would have struggled without any treats for the week.. AND it ended up lasting until Sunday evening which was a bonus.
I also made a creamy pasta bake using the pasta, mushrooms, broccoli and the very last of those spring greens. I use soy milk and tahini for the sauce which I already had knocking around..
This feast made enough for dinner and lunch on Thursday, too.
DAY 4 - Thursday
Day 4 of tea and toast for brekkie - admittedly getting a bit samey, and definitely a bit boring. The loaf was still perfectly fine, though - can't believe it would've been thrown away!!
Once again, leftovers for lunch went down a treat and today I had the luxury of hummus and pitta from Sharehouse Market to snack on throughout the day.
The real winner, though, was dinner. I cooked up one tray of the roast potatoes along with the mediterranean veg, and a simple bravas-type sauce using some chopped toms, onion, garlic, and smoked paprika. Really easy and sooo delicious.
Thinking I could definitely get used to this?!
DAY 5 - Friday
Finally - the last two slices of this loaf!!!! The final lot of tea and toast for breakfast (phew).
For lunch, I made leek and potato soup mix from the pack I got on Wednesday (I didn't even know these soup packs existed before this challenge) which made enough for about 3 portions. Served with a pitta, because these carbs aren't gonna eat themselves!!!
I didn't eat at home for dinner on Friday or Saturday night as I work in a restaurant and at get a meal on shift. HOWEVER, I did manage to take home 2 breakfast burritos MOMENTS from going in the bin that were left over at the end of the day - perfect timing too, having just ran out of bread!
While I'm here, Shed are one of the food outlets in Sheffield on Too Good To Go, the nationwide app where you can purchase and collect leftover food from restaurants at the end of the day for a discounted price. It's really easy to use and ultimately saves really great restaurant food from going to waste. The app is free and shows all the participating outlets in your area, including cafes and bakeries… such an amazing idea!!!
I definitely would've used this app to get some food if I had run out of options at the end of the week - I mean, how can you resist a takeaway at half price?!
DAY 6 - Saturday
Saturday I was at work again - pretty much being the human hoover for anything that was going to be left over. As well as the burritos for breakfast, I ended up having the sandwich that was on display at work for lunch (herby cashew cheese, pesto and rocket - yum), which was still perfectly fine by the time I got to it, just unable to sell to customers (obvs). The evening drill was the same as Friday… and a busy day/eve meant no pics :-( !
DAY 7 - Sunday
And here we have it, the final hurdle that is Sunday. A pretty boring day on the cuisine front - just using up all of the veg that I now needed to get rid of.
For breakfast I was actually thankful that I didn't have any bread for toast, and so opted for the SUPER ripe banana I'd neglected for a couple of weeks (guilty) and some frozen blueberries back from when I had a health-kick phase to whip up a breakfast smoothie - very pleasant indeed!
Lunch and dinner came as a 2 birds one stone kind of deal. Ramen for lunch and ramen for dinner. I ended up having sooo much veg to get through it seemed a sensible choice, and all the veg ended up covering both meals easily. It proved a nice lazy meal too, a one pot wonder taking about 15 mins from door to door (fridge-door to me-door).
The final portion of crumble for pud and that's ya lot, kids!
…. And that really is the lot - a week on waste complete!
With all food for the week costing about £15 (including donations to the organisations), I didn't struggle at all to produce filling, healthy and easy meals - including the infamous 'leftovers for lunch' deal. That £15 also included the 2 portions of soup in the freezer, as well as a pack of pittas to use at a later date, so all in all I don’t think I've done too badly.
The challenge has also given me a chance to have a bit of a clear out of stuff I already had - sort of like a less hard-core pantry challenge (more on that here), allowing a fresh start next week.
I guess the fact I've found it so easy just goes to show that we - as a country - really do waste a lot of food. At the start of the week I thought I was going to struggle, but it proved to be quite the opposite - at points I actually found that I was spoilt for choice when it came to dinner! It's been a really enjoyable experience, and most importantly, I barely even noticed that all this food was meant to be 'waste'.
I would absolutely recommend trying this challenge to anyone and everyone ! It's definitely made me learn a lot more about how to cook consciously, get organised and get creative with limited choice - plus, it's definitely a cheap hack when trying to save some pennies!
If you've got this far in this article I'd like to thank you for putting up with my drivel, and I really hope it's sparked a little curiosity surrounding food waste. If you are interested in this kind of thing, the film 'Just Eat It' (available on Amazon Prime Video) is definitely worth a watch - it's about a couple who document their experience living 6 months on food waste - and an eye-opener to say the least!
That's all from me - any other questions or comments feel free to get in touch via our Facebook page 'Jessop West Green Impact Team'.