Food Waste Challenge
Thank you to everyone that applied to participate in NHDC's first Food Waste Challenge. Clearly wasting food is as big an issue for you as it is for us!
The two lucky households chosen to take part successfully completed the challenge and HALVED the food they threw away! Please read the summary 
on how they did and what we learnt about tackling the growing cost of food waste.
How it worked
The households logged all their food and drink waste during the first week and noted why it was being thrown away. At the end of the week the food waste was assessed by a recycling expert who gave advice on how the waste could have been avoided. The second week was where the challenge really began as the households, armed with the new skills they learnt, tried to dramatically reduce their food waste.
Meet the challenge participants
| Maria Nightingale from Royston Before... “It will be really useful to learn how to get the most from the food I buy. Being a single person often means that food goes off before you get the chance to eat it. I’m looking forward to taking part in the challenge.” |
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After... Maria initially thought she wasted very little food but was still able to halve this from 5.1kg to 2.8kg. Now she makes more unusual meals, such as exotic crumbles, using up what she has in the house. She also makes supper in bulk for two or three nights in one go. Maria also suggests freezing any leftovers for future meals, making two cups of tea with one teabag and buying frozen onions that are ready for any meal. |
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The Allen Family from Hitchin Before... “As a family of four we could probably cut back on the food that we waste quite substantially. I am going to be really interested to learn just how much money we could save by putting the advice we receive into everyday practice.” |
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After... The Allens were wasting mostly bread, pastries and cooked meals but managed to halve this waste from 10.5kg to 4.5kg. “It has been great training for our family to collect our food waste separately and not put any in our normal kitchen bin which would have gone to landfill. It has shown us how much food we waste without really realising” said Rebekah. “The handy tips from Laura and recipe cards have given us so many more ideas on how we can get better use out of our food.” |
