Communities are reducing food waste in creative ways

Climate change is affecting our food, and our food is affecting the climate. NPR is dedicating a week Stories and conversations about the search for solutions.

When we started working on this year's Climate Solutions Week, about the future of food, we realized that the solutions seemed to fall into three groups: what we grow, how we cook and eat, and often what we waste.

Below are some community-led solutions. While many powerful changes can start at home, sometimes the scale of the problem benefits from a community-wide approach.

First: Understand the scale of the problem

It's not nice to throw away food, and it's not good for the planet.

To help understand the scale of the problem, WBUR Boston created a quiz to help explore the amount of food produced in the United States that goes to waste.

Quiz: Do you know how much food Americans waste — and what it's costing us?

– Nick DeCosta-Klipa, WBUR

Reusing oyster shells

PJ Waters shows oyster shells with varying levels of decaying material on the Alabama Gulf Coast on Feb. 9, 2024. After curing, the shells are used for other programs to help oyster populations, such as oyster garden programs.

Danny MacArthur/Gulf States Newsroom

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Danny MacArthur/Gulf States Newsroom

Oyster reefs off the coast of Alabama, like many others in the Gulf South, have suffered from climate change. Returning oyster shells to the water helps grow more oysters in their place to play an important role in their ecosystem. They filter and improve water quality; Give a home to fish, crabs and other animals; and helps combat erosion by providing natural protection to coastlines.

Since starting the program, the Alabama Coastal Foundation has collected more than 22.6 million shells, covering 57 acres of land.

Another program designed to help boost oyster populations uses some of the shells — oyster farming.

– Danny MacArthur, Gulf States Newsroom

California is getting kids involved

Steven Winbrand led students through The Wesley School's first-ever compost collection event.

Caleigh Wells/KCRW

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Caleigh Wells/KCRW

K-8 students at Wesley School in North Hollywood decorated a series of 5-foot containers with a giant banner that read: “5,220 pounds of food waste saved from landfill.”

Thanks to California's law on municipal food waste recycling, it would have been much easier for campus staff to dispose of school food waste in city-provided green bins.

But taking it out of sight would miss the point, says their science teacher Jana Hampton-Walker.

“When it's invisible, they don't see it,” she says. “They know, but it doesn't sink in.”

Where compost ends up can also have a powerful impact. Food waste collected from city residences is being used for almond orchards outside the city.

– Caleigh Wells, KCRW

Farming to feed neighbors

Lindsay Shockley says that picking reminds her of the cooperation between humans and nature. The approach of winter reflects that as productive as we can be, we also need to find time to recharge and rest.

Gabby Lozada/NHPR

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Gabby Lozada/NHPR

Last fall, after an unseasonably wet and unpredictable growing season, volunteers gathered at Kimball Fruit Farm on the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border. The process picks leftover produce to share with people in need before it goes bad.

Not only does this reduce products that go to waste, but it serves as a reminder of the labor that goes into growing and harvesting food.

“There are people who do this every day for a living,” said Paula Moran of the United Way of Greater Nashua. “If you come out and you volunteer one day a year, that's a big deal, but at least it gives you an appreciation of how hard people work.”

– Gabriela Lozada, New Hampshire Public Radio

Using unused land for free food production

David Thompson stands in front of six garden beds at Triple Earl Farms, a food independence garden in a South Tacoma neighborhood maintained by Thompson's organization Food is Free Washington, on April 26, 2024.

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David Thompson is an urban farmer in Tacoma, Washington, who is trying to fight food insecurity by connecting people with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Thompson founded Food Is Free Tacoma in 2015, which eventually became the nonprofit organization Food Is Free Washington. Food is free volunteers produce fresh produce to give to people who need it in public areas like the Park Strip and in residents' front and back yards.

There are dozens of sites across the city called Food Independence Gardens, or FIGs. To date, the organization has provided large amounts of food to people and families throughout Pierce County.

– Mayowa Aina, KNKX

Ways to reduce waste at home

of NPR Life kit There are lots of resources to help you make the waste you generate at home a sustainable part of your daily life:

💡 Guide: How to reduce your food waste at home
💡 12 tips from our listeners to reduce food waste
💡 Comic: How to start composting at home
💡 Comic: A Kid's Guide to Climate Change