Reducing food waste is on our minds at Harvest Right these days. New statistics reveal that millions of people go hungry every day while millions of pounds of food, enough to feed all of us twice over, is going in the garbage. We’re encouraging our fantastic home freeze-dryer owners to help the movement to reduce food waste by wielding their freeze dryers to preserve leftovers, reduce spoilage and take advantage of bulk sales. If you read some of the statistics about food waste, you’ll first be shocked, then you’ll be completely motivated to make small changes in your own life to help preserve your perfectly good food for another 25 years. We love I Value Food for easily digestible statistics about food waste and how to cut down on waste in your own home. Here are some statistics that will surprise you:

• 26% of meat ends up in the landfill – that’s enough calories to feed 8,600 children for a year
• The average restaurant meal is 4x larger than it was in 1950
• Those dining out leave 17% of their food uneaten, and 55% of those meals don’t get taken home
• If they do get taken home, 38% of those meals get thrown away
• Households throw away 25% of the food they buy

Olio: The First Food-Sharing App?

We’re excited for the coming-soon U.S. version of Olio, a free app that helps people and local businesses exchange edible surplus food. For example, with this app you could get notified if your local bakery were about to throw out day-old bread, your neighbor made too many cupcakes for a birthday party or grew too much kale, or your grocery store has items approaching their sell-by dates. We have our fingers crossed for a stateside version of Olio, or any other food-sharing app so that our home freeze-drying community can begin sharing their food with others in need. Do you know of one? Share it with us!

We are really excited at the response we’ve gotten on this topic already. Keep the buzz going and inspire others by posting your food waste reduction tactics and stories on our Facebook page!