King County (Washington) just launched an amazing campaign called Food: Too Good To Waste. They ran a pilot program last year, but have scaled up the initiative to include, among other things…videos!
In the videos, Chef Jackie, of campaign partner PCC Natural Markets, is the star. After watching her help families reduce their food waste in numerous ways, Chef Jackie is my new web crush. I’m hoping that she can make like Santa and visit every household in America.
As a leftover lover, I’m particularly fond of the Love Your Leftovers video:
It has neat messages on buying smaller quantities, keeping a refrigerator “Eat Now” box and planning a leftovers night. My one quibble is that, in light of the new date label study, I wasn’t fond of the insinuation that the family would have to throw out the chopped garlic when it reached its expiration date (but I liked the larger point advising against buying too much).
Some of the topics may sound a bit obvious–Shop Smart. Keep Fruits and Vegetables Fresh and Eat What You Buy–but these pages and their corresponding videos all contain useful tips and tricks for avoiding waste in your home. And, given that we discard about one-fourth of what we buy, the advice likely won’t be too basic for a most folks.
Finally, I’m grateful that the campaign creators resisted the urge to call it 2 Good 2 Waste. That’d be 2 much.