Food waste is a challenge that spans far beyond Canada’s borders—and so do its solutions. As Canada’s largest food rescue organization, Second Harvest has dedicated much of our time, energy, and thought into growing an online library of free resources, tools, e-learning, research, and blogs that will help all of us put an end to food waste at home (wherever that may be).
Here is a collection of our top food waste resources to help us all in our collective mission to eliminate food waste for good. But before we jump in, here is a little food for thought to help inspire you to make new (and good) food habits.
Food For Thought on Reducing Waste
From Stop Food Waste Day to Waste Reduction Week and Circular Economy Month in Canada, these annual awareness days are meant to educate, inspire, and ignite change. All of us must overhaul our consumption habits in order to make a real impact. We must place a higher value on our resources, including those that helped put food on our plates.
Take a carrot, for instance. In order to grow a carrot, a farmer took the time, effort, and resources to prepare the land, plant the seed, water it, weed, fertilize, spray, and then harvest it, before a manufacturer washes, sorts, cuts, destems, packages, markets, sells, and ships it to a distributor, who then transports it to your grocery store. It took time, money, energy, freshwater, soil, sun, seeds, fertilizer, sprays, labour, packaging, refrigeration, and fuel to get that carrot to you.
A carrot, therefore, is so much more than just a carrot. It is all of the precious and often finite resources that went into getting it from the farm to your plate. And all of that combined is why we must stop food waste.
Explore These Resources and Stop Food Waste for Good
Bookmark this post and refer back to it on your journey toward a sustainable food future. Together, we’ve got this!
The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste Report
Did you know that 58% of all food in Canada is lost or wasted—and that 32% of that could be redirected to feed Canadians? In a first-of-its-kind report, The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste demonstrates the need to radically change how we value food. The report follows a year-long research project by Second Harvest and Value Chain Management International, a leading public and industry voice in food waste. Among many other findings, they discovered that every year, 56.5 million metric tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions are created by food waste in Canada.
Explore the Report and Arm Yourself With Facts That Inspire You to Make Big Changes.
Second Harvest’s Blogs on Food Waste Reduction
We’re experts in the field of food rescue and waste reduction—and we’ve done the research for you! Check out our collection of blog posts on food waste to find more statistics, hopeful stories, thought leadership articles, and inspiring tips, tricks, and challenges to start doing at home and at work.
Here are some of our top blog posts on food waste to help you get started and inspired:
- 7 Simple Steps to Sustainable Grocery Shopping and Eating Habits
- RENEWAL: Our Relationship with Food & the 4th ‘R’ of Recycling
- BEST BEFORE DATES: Everything You Need to Know
- 10 Clever & Easy Kitchen Hacks to Reduce Your Home’s Food Waste
- WASTE REDUCTION WEEK: Curb Your Household Food Waste
- Make 2022 the Year we Eliminate Food Waste
- APPETITE FOR PERFECTION: How Food Aesthetics Harm us
- ART OF THE PANTRY: Finding New Inspiration in You Cupboards
- What Modern Eating Habits Can Learn From Past Generations
Explore Second Harvest’s Food Waste Articles.
Second Harvest’s Get Involved at Home Tips
Second Harvest’s Food Rescue App helps businesses donate food to local non-profits and organizations in need of it. In other words, we help organizations both give and receive food. At home, we can all do our part to be food rescuers—and this page is an excellent place to start for Stop Food Waste Day.
Visit this site to find helpful links and ways to get involved in food waste reduction at home. Tips include eating “ugly” produce and getting creative with leftovers or wilting produce. There are also links to get even more involved by volunteering with or donating to Second Harvest or signing up for our monthly Harvest Journal, sent via email.
Find Out How to Get Involved at Home.
Free Online Workshops on Food Waste Prevention Training
Second Harvest offers free online workshops, including several quick e-learning courses based on Food Waste Prevention. These workshops give businesses, corporations, individuals, and non-profits strategies, challenges, solutions, and tips to maximize food, while reducing unnecessary and environmentally harmful waste (and spending).
Some of the food waste prevention e-learnings include:
- Food Date Labelling
- A Guide to Food Date Labelling
- A Donor Guide to Food Recovery
- Food Storage
- Food Waste Audit
Discover Second Harvest’s Food Waste Prevention Training.
Help us Stop Food Waste Every Day
Second Harvest is Canada’s largest food rescue organization. Last year, we rescued 41 million pounds of food that would have gone to waste and sent it to Canadians in need. That’s equivalent to averting 162 million pounds of greenhouse gases from the environment. Second Harvest works across the food supply chain to stop food waste and support hunger relief in Canada. But we’ve never done it alone. We all have to do our part to stop food waste both in our homes, our communities, and at our workplaces.
