October 21 to 27 was Waste Reduction Week in Canada. They dedicated a day (Friday, Oct 25th) to Reduce Food Waste. Did you know Canadians throws out 175 Kg of food every year?

Most people talk about the damages of food waste on the environment and the overall economy.
Not that many talks about the effect of food waste on families on their budget and bottom line and in general on the health of their marriage.

We used to throw out a lot of wilted vegetables in our household, which was a huge source of friction in our household. I’m a spontaneous cook, I do a little bit of meal planning but mostly I cook according to my mood. To be able to do that, I always need certain vegetables in the fridge ready to go. Vegetables like mushrooms, celery, a variety of herbs. Of course, I would not cook them all every week and after a week we had a bunch of dried out mushrooms, wilted celery and herbs to throw out. And let’s be honest how much vegetable stock can you make and use every week?

Well, that was about 8 years ago. Then I was determined to remove the source of friction in the house and cook the way I like. I needed a bag that could keep my celery unwilted because I could never use up the celery before it wilted. That’s how we ended up creating Fresh Bags. Since then we have reduced our vegetable waste to 1/8 of what it was.

There are tons of way to reduce food waste, you don’t necessarily need to use our Fresh bags. I just find them effortless and very easy to use.

I wish there were places, shelters who would accept home-cooked meals. For safety reason, most shelters and location don’t accept leftover homemade food. I understand that but wouldn’t it be nice if you could feed some stranger who is hungry with the leftover food you made with love? I think the world would be a better place if we could easily share our food with total strangers, without the worry of legality.

If you know of shelters and soup kitchens that accept homemade leftover foods please share in the comments. It’s a good resource to have especially during the holiday season.