Today I want to talk about how y'all handle food waste when 1) you are working on your own relationship with food and 2) when you are trying to support your kids' relationship to food?
Because honestly, I find this a head fuck.
For some background - approximately 60% of food waste in the UK comes from households (as opposed to food manufacturers, hospitality, and farms). This results in around 18 million tonnes of greenhouse gas (I appreciate that compared to other 'sectors' this isn't the biggest source of GHGs).
And this is on the background of escalating food costs (which are of course on a background of escalating profits for supermarkets). 8 million adults in the UK are food insecure. Households with children under 4, single adult households with children, Black/African/Caribbean people, and disabled people are at the highest 'risk' of food insecurity. It's a lot.
And at the same time, I struggle with the narrative that this is a personal problem and that we just need to be smarter about how we do things. It ignores the mental load of trying to mitigate food waste on top of the already demanding mental load of meal planning, shopping, cooking, cleaning and all the other stuff needed to feed people. Woof). It also ignores how our circumstances and ability to deal with food waste are the result of structural inequity, rather then down to individual choices.
AND, when you are struggling in your relationship with food, the guilt of throwing things away and wasting food can be a minefield.
Intuitive eating preaches exploring previously forbidden foods, having plenty of foods stocked up in the house so you can indulge in what you fancy, and taste testing things to find the 'satisfaction factor'. What if choosing the food you really want to eat means binning the stuff you had in the fridge and ordering a takeaway?Aside from the cost, what are the implications here for food waste? (For a great discussion of Intuitive Eating in the context of food insecurity, read Anjali's essay here).
There is only so much banana bread a human can eat Photo by Lucian Alexe / Unsplash
And how about with our kids? How do we navigate the issue of food waste when we don't want to pressure our kids to eat things they don't want/like/aren't hungry for? What if we're Division of Responsibility-ing our asses off; we provide a complete meal but they only eat the rice and not the chicken and broccoli we cooked them? Sure sometimes another adult eats it or it can be stored for leftovers. But not always.
Yesterday, for example, Avery didn't want their fruit at breakfast. Fine, I'm not going to push it. He did end up eating it for bedtime snack which, ok great. Other times I might throw it in his 'lunchbox' for after school club snack. This works for our family, but what if you served the fruit a couple of times and the kid still refuses it? What if they specifically ask for something and then immediately after you make it, decide they don't want to eat it and ask for something else (asking for a friend 🥴)?
So I guess my question is this, how are you thinking about and dealing with food waste? Have you decided that, actually food waste is not something you can focus on because you do not have the spoons/capacity? Are you more concerned with caring for the environment through reducing consumption of (i.e.) fast fashion, air travel, or just being more conscious of what you're buying and trying to buy less shit from Amazon? Do you have conversations with your kids about food waste, and if so, how do you explain it without making them feel like they're obligated to join the clean plate club?How are you finding more peace in your own relationship with food, especially if your food budget is tight and there's little-to-no wiggle room for 'luxuries' or waste? What if you just cannot afford to let your kids waste food?
To be super clear this is a judgement-free zone. I don't think anyone is better if they can fit their waste for the entire year into a single garbage can (I swear I met someone who did this once), and I don't think any less of you if you end up throwing away a bunch of stuff each week. We all have very different backgrounds, values, privileges, and priorities that make this conversation tricky, so please take care of each other in the comments.
