To “nourish someone” is to feed them deeply in a sustainable way. When you nourish you consider the what, how and why. That’s how Nourish By Numbers started. We are a public awareness initiative that is bringing people together to influence better food for all. In this edition, our first step of many in the ways we can reduce food waste.

As a part of this movement, I am sharing #1000Waysto Nourish. These are real actions that we can take in our daily lives to change the way we grow, consume and talk about food, and where that food finally ends up.

A third of the world’s food ends up in a landfill. Canada is one of the worse offenders where 58% of the food produced is either lost or thrown away.

– Source – Second Harvest, Canada 2019.

Food waste is a big problem. It is a waste of not just food, but also the time and resources that went into producing that food. The garbage takes up space – billions of tons of landfill space – and it also adds to emissions that are causing global warming. Food waste is a huge problem. Yes! But like all seemingly insurmountable problems, the solution to this one also starts with people taking that first step.

What can you do?

Shop your fridge first.

Every time you think you need to make a grocery run, open the fridge first. Look in the back, check old containers, look through the leftovers. Make it a habit.

Shop for what you need in your fridge FIRST.

I have to be honest – it is wonderful to have fresh produce to cook with. But this life of abundance where we can walk into a grocery store and buy what we need whenever we want has diminished the value we attach to our food. So before you head out to the grocery store, shop your fridge first. Make sure there’s nothing else that you can find hiding in there.

One Last Thing: Find wilted carrots and limp spinach? They can be transformed into a comforting bowl of curry. Millions of people make curry every day because you can add anything to it and it transforms into something warm and flavourful. Kind of how life can be

Over the next little while, I will be sharing many more real steps that we can take in our lives to reduce the sheer quantity of food waste that we see in our life. Follow and share #1000WaystoNourish. We all need to work together.