Eat It, Feed It, Compost It
When it comes to food, the highest and best use is to eat it. When eating food is not possible, we turn to other uses for food that are better options than landfilling. This month, Love Food, Fight Waste is highlighting the food hierarchy to delve into the best ways to manage food for people and the planet.
Monthly Topic Overview
The food hierarchy is helpful to break down all the different ways food can be managed and to identify which options are better than others, from a social, economic, and environmental perspective. Let’s break it down layer by layer.
#1 Source Reduction: Reducing food waste at the source (such as your home) is the best for you and the environment. When we eat the food we purchase, we save money and make less trash. There is a lot of energy, water, and other resources that go into growing and producing food, and when we eat it, we are making that whole process worth it!
- Take Action: Learn how to reduce food waste at the source by checking out our past monthly promotions listed above under “Program Timeline.”
#2 Feed People: When there is more food than what a home or business can realistically consume or sell, donate it to feed others! Depending on where you live, there are different options on how to donate.
- Take Action: Here in Iowa City, we have our food rescuers at Table to Table and CommUnity that do great work in this slice of our food hierarchy “pie.” Both organizations take nonperishable canned goods and fresh produce from gardens and Table to Table can accept leftover food from events. Donate or volunteer to make a difference!
#3 Feed Animals: When circumstances arise where food is unable to be distributed for people to eat, a great next use is to feed farm animals.
- Take Action: If you know of a consistent food source that fits into this layer of the food hierarchy, there may be a local farmer interested in receiving it! Visit Practical Farmers to find a farmer near you.
#4 Industrial Uses: When food cannot be eaten or fed to animals, it can be utilized to produce energy. This is usually at the commercial or industrial scale.
#5 Compost: Composting is a great option when food cannot be utilized in the above, and is especially useful for non-edible types of food waste such as banana peels, eggshells, and coffee grounds. Composting is the process of facilitated decomposition in which food scraps and other organic materials are made into compost, a nutrient-rich soil amendment. Compost can be added to your yard or garden to give your soil a nutrient boost.
- Take Action: For information on composting at home, curbside, or directly at the Compost Facility, visit the City of Iowa City’s food waste web page.
#6 Landfill: As a last resort option, food waste is legally allowed to be landfilled in most locations. This is considered the least recommended option because of many reasons. Organic material, such as food, in a landfill environment where there is no air or light produces a potent greenhouse gas known as methane. Throwing food away also wastes all the resources that went into growing and making that food in the first place.
Activity
- If you compost:
- Look in your compost bin to see what different items have been thrown in. Are the food items non-edible, like coffee grounds, or are they food items that could have been eaten and instead were wasted, like moldy bread?
- If you don’t compost:
- Look in your trash can to see what has been thrown away. Do you see any food items, and if so, were they food items that could have been eaten and instead were wasted?
Resources
- EPA’s information on food hierarchy and composting
- FoodPrint’s assortment of food waste reduction resources, including worm composting and regular composting tips, food waste reduction tips, and more!
Read more Love Food, Fight Waste topics, brought to you by Table to Table and the City of Iowa City.
Volunteer Spotlight: Dina Janzen’s essential role in a complex food recovery network
Dina Janzen’s interest in volunteering with Table to Table was piqued in January 2007 when she first noticed a volunteer picking up food at a donor partner. Now we’re celebrating Dina’s fifteenth year rescuing food with T2T!
Dina is currently one of three T2T volunteer drivers for what we refer to as our “Big Truck” route, picking up surplus warehouse food donations that account for 31% of the food T2T recovers. This food isn’t short-dated and adds variety to our deliveries, including gluten-free, vegetarian, and organic options. Driving our 22-ft straight truck, Dina stops at warehouse donors and loads literally tons of food on pallets directly into our truck quickly and efficiently.
What’s a key part of the volunteer role for Dina? “I absolutely love connecting with the people inside the backdoors of warehouses, stores and food pantries every week,” she says. “I find it fascinating to observe how the complex systems that exist to rescue all this food are constantly adapting. My part of this system is simple, but my role feels essential. A gratifying volunteer job indeed!”
Dina has collected food donations for T2T from warehouses since even before we procured our own big truck. Not too long ago, Dina loaded food donations off of pallets from warehouses by hand into a T2T van until no more would fit. She would then deliver the food to CommUnity Food Bank (then known as the Crisis Center), hand-unload it all, and stack it in their fridge or freezer space. Oh, if only we had the software then to track the amount of food that each of our volunteers rescues; Dina’s numbers would be off the charts!
Dina does what it takes, rain or shine, to make sure we connect great surplus food resources to folks who enjoy the food. We’re so grateful for her and her many years of dedication to our mission and community.
Get to know Dina:
What is one of your favorite food memories?
Baskin Robbins, 1972. Sugar cone with two scoops. Coffee ice cream on top of chocolate mint.
What are your hobbies?
Sewing, mah-jongg, bicycling around town, jigsaw puzzles, yoga, gardening, and searching for the most interesting AirBnbs.
What is your favorite dessert?
Homemade flan.
Join the Team! AmeriCorps Position
AmeriCorps Food Rescue Specialist
Position Summary:
The AmeriCorps Food Rescue Specialist will contribute to the hunger relief efforts in Johnson County by supporting the daily function of the food rescue program and its volunteers in a friendly and fast-paced environment. This person will be part of the team directing volunteers and actualizing smooth pick-up and delivery of food donations, and preparing T2T’s fleet of vehicles for food rescue routes. This position may also participate in the gleaning (harvesting) of excess produce from farms and gardens as well as getting the food to food-insecure individuals via pop-up free produce stands and other efforts with partner agencies. T2T serves as the hub for 60% of the food distributed by Johnson County’s hunger relief network. The best candidate is an energetic team player with strong communication skills who enjoys interacting with people of diverse ages and backgrounds.
Read more about member benefits here.
Table to Table AmeriCorps Food Rescue Specialist 2022-2023
Schedule and Duration: Average 20 hours per week from December 5, 2022 – August 11, 2023
Primarily Monday-Friday mornings from 8AM with some flexibility (especially the first couple weeks of service, if needed to accommodate an academic calendar). Other days and times as needed and agreed upon; will require some evenings in the summer.
Required: Willing to consent to an AmeriCorps background check.
Ability to lift and move 20-40 pounds repeatedly.
Strongly preferred but not required: Over 21 with a valid driver’s license and good driving record.
Supervision Given by: The Food Rescue Specialist is supervised by the T2T Program Manager and is part of a team including the T2T Logistics & Relationships Coordinator.
If you’re interested in this AmeriCorps position, please submit an email of interest and/or a resume (both preferred, if available) to Allison Gnade at Table to Table via email: allison@table2table.org
About AmeriCorps
Being an AmeriCorps member is about making a tangible difference for communities and individuals dealing with some of our nation’s biggest challenges: poverty, inequity, homelessness, and lack of access to education. Summer AmeriCorps members help organizations with activities that work to alleviate the effects of poverty all across the country. As an AmeriCorps member you will serve in a project identified and managed by the community while earning a modest living allowance that reflects the income level of the community where you’re serving.
25-Year Impact Report: A letter from the director
For us to let anyone go without, when food is plentiful, is to say, “You don’t deserve to eat.”
As we wrap up our 25th year, we celebrate how far we’ve come and all that we’ve done together. Let me start our reflection on the past by painting a picture of the present.
Every pound counts…
- In early 2022, 141 million dollars in emergency food assistance was cut from the State of Iowa budget, reducing benefits for every Iowan in the program. Meanwhile the USDA estimates that grocery prices have gone up by 11% in 2022.
- Here on the ground, we’re seeing more neighbors seeking emergency food assistance than at any point in the last three years.
- I recently read an account from a woman in another county who was turned away at her local pantry because she was a SNAP participant and they assumed she shouldn’t need more support. She writes, “I suddenly felt embarrassed and asked if she was sure. Like, hey, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t really need the help.” The common experience is that SNAP helps but is just not enough. Then there are those who don’t qualify for the program at all. We won’t turn away our neighbors.
T2T staff on a glean at Trowel & Error Farm in 2022.
No one should feel embarrassed for trying to feed their family. As a society, we should be ashamed at the lengths our neighbors must go in order to access enough to eat. These folks are resourceful and resilient, prioritizing what little they have in ways that are most effective for their families. To make it work, many sacrifice a number of meals per week. Meanwhile, ever-tightening budgets limit affordability of the most nutritious foods.
…and we’re working harder for every pound
Food rescue organizations across the country have experienced unprecedented fluctuations in food donations.
- Supply chain disruptions and inadequate staffing leave stores with bare shelves and fewer staff to pull food for donation. We must stop at donors more frequently to capture every available donation. More pick-ups mean more coordination, more volunteers, more fuel.
- We have to maintain the capacity to say “yes” to more last-minute donations. Last month we got a call from a truck driver who had 700 pounds of ground beef, ribs, and roasts to offload in the next hour. With our new location and more staff, we readily accepted this valuable donation that we might have had to decline three years ago.
- We’re harvesting directly from farms, working with more processors, and adding many smaller food outlets to our routes. The most requested foods are also the most costly to recover.
What does all this mean? Table to Table is working harder and investing more to capture every pound, and it is well worth the investment. Many of our partners would have to more than double their food purchasing budgets without our daily deliveries.
Your investment in Table to Table these past 25 years has fueled the flexibility and ingenuity of our team and our programs today.
In gratitude,
Nicki Ross
Freeze & preserve your extra food
Winter is coming… but what are you going to do with all that zucchini that needs to be used now? Freezing and preserving your food will ensure you don’t have to throw extra away and you’ll get to enjoy that summer bounty throughout the long, cold winter months – it’s a win-win!
Monthly Topic Overview
You can save food for months – like hitting a “pause” button on it – by freezing or canning, and it just might surprise you how many different types of food can be preserved for long periods of time. Read on for tools to preserve your food safely while retaining as much delicious taste as possible.
Freezing 101
Here’s a few tips to keep in mind when preparing food to freeze:
- Keep food safety in mind. Don’t leave hot food out at room temperature for hours to cool off before freezing it, as this increases risk of foodborne illness. Instead, set the pan of just-cooked hot food in a tray of ice water so it cools down quickly before putting the food in the freezer.
- Package food in portion sizes before freezing. This makes it super easy to take out of the freezer and heat up for a quick meal later!
- Use airtight containers or bags to prevent freezer burn. (Note: freezer burn is harmless; it just makes food not as tasty.) Freezer bags, freezer wrap, aluminum foil, and freezer paper all work well as flexible, airtight containers to maximize your freezer space. Rigid containers work well for certain foods, especially liquids – just make sure you leave about a half-inch gap to allow for liquid expansion while it freezes.
- Label the food you’ve frozen with its contents and date. You can even try making a freezer inventory list. Generally it’s best to use foods within 8-12 months of freezing. Quality deteriorates over time, but as long as the food stays frozen, bacteria and molds don’t form.
When you get that food out of the freezer to use again, the safest ways to thaw it are to place it in the fridge (often overnight), heating it up in the microwave, or placing it in a bowl of cold water. If you use the microwave to thaw food, make sure you use it immediately afterward, since you don’t want it to sit at a temperature where bacteria can grow for long.
What foods can I freeze?
We’re serious: you can freeze almost anything to enjoy later! There’s a few foods that don’t freeze well (lettuce and cabbage become limp and watery, for example), but you may be surprised at just how much you can freeze.
- Flash-freeze fruits and veggies, like berries, or even bacon and bread slices so they don’t freeze in huge chunks. Flash-freezing is easy and fairly quick! Check out this video on how to flash-freeze.
- Frozen fruits (especially bananas) and even zucchini chunks make great smoothie ingredients.
- Freeze extra cheese and milk. Since these products don’t often last long in the fridge, freezing can be a great option to store leftovers if you don’t use these foods up quickly.
- Pro tip: use a muffin tin to freeze stews, chili, etc. in lunch-sized portions.
- Use an ice cube tray to freeze sauces, juices, and condiments. You can even freeze individual cracked eggs in cubes.
- Freeze chicken bones to make stock later.
- Try blanching veggies before freezing to slow vitamin loss and retain better quality.
Quick canning overview
Canning foods is another preservation option. Create jams, jellies, relishes, pickles, salsas, sauces, butters, and more by canning foods!
- Make sure you research how to safely home-can foods before you attempt this method to prevent risk of food-borne illness.
- There are a few different methods of canning foods, including boiling water bath, atmospheric steam canning, or pressure canning method. Research which method you should use for the type of food you are canning.
- This is a great source for more information on safely canning foods at home.
Activity
Learn more about the myriad of foods you can freeze and how to use those frozen foods in this article from the archives. Now do a quick sweep of your fridge and/or countertops. Is anything nearing the end of freshness? What can you transfer to the freezer? If you haven’t before, try some of the methods listed above or in the resources below to freeze your food to retain the most quality.
Other Resources
- Freezing Prepared Foods Guide
- “Save the Food” Freezing Guide
- Canning resources
- Learn how to blanch different types of vegetables
Read more Love Food, Fight Waste topics, brought to you by Table to Table and the City of Iowa City.
