Regrow What You Throw: Reducing Food Waste and Saving Money
Sanoe Grijalva, Kristy Ngo, Tiger Liang, Kristin Blackburn
Keywords: Food Insecurity, Food Waste, Sustainability
Winter 2026
Embedded Files
Driving Questions
What are easy-to-plant food scraps that are accessible for the common household?
What impact can planting food scraps have on reducing food waste and scarcity?
How can replanting food scraps help reduce financial strain on low-income families?
Project Cover Letter
Media
Tutorials
Tutorials
tiger tutorial.mp4Green Onion
sanoe garlic tutorial .mp4Garlic
kristy plant tutorial .mp4Mint
Basil
Growth
Growth
Green Onion
Garlic
Mint
Basil
Data
Findings:
Findings:
Green Onions: The green onion was fairly simple to grow. All I did was cut off the green part of the green onion and submerged the roots in water. By just replacing the water every two days, I saw fairly consistant growth in terms of height. Once the green onion reaches over 30 cm, it would be about time to "harvest" your plants. All you would have to do is cut off the green parts again and submerge the roots in water. You may find more success if you provide your plant with more nutrients other than just water.
Garlic: The garlic started growing roots immediately after being placed into the water/soil and grew rapidly for the first week. New garlic bulbs started to form at the base of each plant within a few days. During the second week the growth continued however, it was growing at a much slower rate. The growth began to plateau around the second week and I did not see much change after that point.
Mint: The mint was very unstable and difficult to grow. Not noted in the tutorial video, was that the bottom of the stem needs to be trimmed at an angle before placing it in water. Also, keep it out of direct sunlight, because the heat was too harsh for the mint. Once these adjustments were made, the plant began to grow roots. However, it died soon after this which indicates it may need to be potted in soil once roots develop.
Basil: The basil was a bit finicky when it came to sunlight. I had to move it to a location with less direct light in order for the leaves to stop singing at the edges. I would also recommend picking the basil closer to the base when possible to ensure roots grow more easily.
Project Materials & Resources
We approached this project with the goal of showcasing an approachable, accessible means of expanding food access for students who may have limited space or finances at their disposal. To that end, our materials list consists of a small range of household items and veggie scraps that can easily be located at most local grocery stores.
Materials Include:
Containers for propogation and planting scraps
i.e. cups, jars, small pots with soil, etc.
Food scraps collected from remnants of our everyday grocery hauls
One scrap (garlic bulb) was donated to us for use in this project.
Measurement apparatus for keeping track of growth
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In order to collect a wide breadth of data, we decided to conduct a semi-structured, qualitative interview with a Basic Needs representative. To that end, we spoke with Beatriz Chavez Vega, the Food Programs Coordinator at the Basic Needs Hub at UC San Diego.
Notable Interview Findings Include:
Students at UCSD hesitate to use resources like the Food Pantry due to shame (stigma) or fear of taking something away from others.
Insecurity is not always visible and does not look the same for all students.
Basic needs support should be an institutional obligation.
“Students shouldn’t be funding their own basic needs.”
“51% of students at UC San Diego are experiencing low to very low food security challenges.”
“We [see] 700 to 1,000 students a week at each location.”
Findings here underscore the relevance and urgency of food insecurity measures at UCSD. We hope that our project can raise awareness of this wide-spread issue while providing one small way that students can help provide for themselves in the midst of economic unease.
Future Directions & Remaining Questions
This project is OPEN for expansion. We would love to see what other plants are easy to propagate and yield good results.
What other produce can be easily grown and maintained?
Are there other ways to reuse food scraps besides regrowing produce?
How would food security change between different locations and environments?
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