Opinion: Food waste prevention is possible in every Alaska community

Has been updated: 17 few minutes ago release date: 17 few minutes ago

During the first week of April, the Alaska Food Policy Council’s Food Waste Task Force invites you to join us in celebrating Food Waste Prevention Week. In 2018, California held its first Food Waste Prevention Week campaign. Florida thought this was a good idea and hosted its own campaign in 2021, which grew into a full-fledged national movement in 2023. The Food Waste Prevention Week website has more than 700 partner organizations, including prominent figures from universities and anti-hunger causes. Non-profit organizations, state environmental departments and circular economy entrepreneurs. You better believe there are a lot of free webinars out there. There are also social media campaigns to educate individuals about changing their behavior, such as creating an ‘eat now’ section in your fridge or learning how to cook some of the fruits and vegetables you’re used to throwing away.

To be honest, I was initially tingled by the idea that America’s food waste solution would change as a matter of individual action. It’s a huge and complex problem. Again, I believe in collective impact and the need to start somewhere. As co-chair of the Alaska Food Policy Council’s Food Waste Task Force, I have found that individuals who are mindful of collective impact and starting somewhere can make a huge difference.

The Alaska Food Policy Council’s Food Waste Working Group is a statewide grassroots advocacy group that meets monthly via Zoom. Over the past five years, we’ve learned a lot about how to talk about food waste. That’s a difficult topic. Some people come to discuss food waste because they want to know how to move expired food from the grocery store to the food pantry. Some people want to talk about community composting options. In Alaska, the topic of food waste can lead to fish bycatch in one conversation, and then your email gets ignored in the next.

The AFPC Food Waste Working Group learned to frame the conversation using EPA’s Food Waste Scale, which shows that food waste solutions exist along a continuum. EPA’s scale begins by reducing food waste at the source or donating it for the benefit of others. When these options are no longer available, other activities may be chosen, such as feeding food waste to animals, composting it, or simply returning food waste to farmland. These are all alternatives to putting food waste in landfills, where the food is thoroughly wasted. The Food Waste Task Force proudly brings this gamut of food recovery into our monthly conversations.

And our monthly conversations are truly enriching. Members of AFPC’s Food Waste Working Group and visitors will share knowledge and best practices from across Alaska. We learned about sandwich shops that have shelter donation programs and hotels that are investing in composting technology. We know that redistribution networks are active in urban centers, moving food from grocery stores to food banks and food pantries. It seems like every weekend in the spring and summer, someone somewhere in Alaska teaches a composting class. Community-led food waste collection and composting programs have begun across the state. Hospitals, schools, gardens and farms of all makes and models are becoming active partners in these emerging networks.

As custodians of this collective knowledge, the AFPC Food Waste Working Group is working on ways to keep this information and inspiration flowing. While we may be discouraged by the vast data gaps in quantifying both the food waste problem and food recovery solutions in Alaska, we know there is much to celebrate. Last year, we launched the low-tech Alaska Food Recovery Dashboard project. We hope this project will mature over time to become an interactive open source archive of food recovery efforts across Alaska.

For now, if you’ve ever wondered if food recovery is happening in your area, an area near you, or an area similar to your area, the answer is yes. If you want to join in the Food Waste Prevention Week celebrations this week, be sure to eat your leftovers and ask your friends if they know anything about food recovery in your area. If you don’t know who to ask, we’re a friendly bunch.

Claire Esther Lubke He co-chairs the Alaska Food Policy Council’s Food Waste Working Group. She studied biology at her UAA and works as a freelance food and science writer.

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