Your refrigerator called. It would like you to stop buying things you already have.
Dear reader,
Raise your hand if you’ve ever discovered a container of leftovers hiding in the back of the refrigerator that you definitely meant to eat.
Or bought cilantro for one recipe and watched the remaining 94% slowly turn into a science experiment.
Or found three jars of mustard because apparently mustard is the new toilet paper.
We’ve all been there.
The good news is that wasting less food doesn’t require becoming a zero-waste superstar who makes their own cheese, composts every banana peel, or somehow remembers exactly what is hiding in the freezer. Instead, start small: small changes count—and they can save money, too.
Step 1: Shop your kitchen
Before you shop your grocery list, shop your refrigerator.
What’s lurking in the produce drawer? What is taking up valuable freezer real estate? Do you already have three cans of beans because apparently you were preparing for the Great Bean Shortage of 2026?
Taking a quick inventory before grocery shopping can help prevent buying food you already have.
Step 2: Give leftovers a second chance
Leftovers are not punishment.
Leftover roasted chicken can become tacos. Vegetables can become soup. Rice can become fried rice. With a little improvisation, a few odds and ends can become a surprisingly respectable dinner.
Consider creating a designated “Eat Me First!” area in your refrigerator so food that needs attention has a VIP section.
Step 3: Become friends with your freezer
Your freezer is basically a pause button for food.
Have more bread than you can eat? Freeze it.
Made too much soup? Freeze it.
Bought a giant package of something because it was on sale and now you’re wondering what you’ve done? Freeze it.
Freezing food before it goes bad can turn “I should probably throw this away” into “Future Me is going to be very happy.”
Step 4: Store it like you mean it
Sometimes food waste isn’t about buying too much—it is about food spoiling before we get around to eating it.
Learning how to store different foods can help them last longer. Keep an eye on what needs to be eaten first, and reorganize the refrigerator occasionally.
Think of it as spring cleaning, except it’s Wednesday and you’re trying to save a perfectly good bell pepper.
Step 5: Rethink the grocery list
A grocery list is helpful.
A grocery list based on what you already have is even better.
Before shopping, take a look at your upcoming schedule. If you’re going to be out of town, working late, or attending approximately seventeen neighborhood events that week, maybe this isn’t the week to buy enough groceries to feed a small soccer team.
Buy what you’ll realistically use.
Step 6: Meet the Save Food, Spend Less Challenge
Hennepin County’s Save Food, Spend Less Challenge is a month-long online challenge designed to help households waste less food while saving time, money, and resources.
The challenge was previously called the Stop Food Waste Challenge, but the name changed to highlight an important bonus: when we use more of the food we buy, we can keep more of our grocery money, too.
The challenge offers more than 60 actions in six categories, covering cooking, planning, shopping, and food storage. Choose the ideas that make sense for your household—no perfection required.
The 2026 challenge runs October 1–31, with registration open now.
Why should we care?
Wasted food isn’t just wasted food. It also represents the water, energy, land, transportation, labor, and money that went into producing and getting that food to our kitchens. That is why Hennepin County has made preventing food waste a priority: to reduce the amount of edible food thrown away and save these important resources.
Your Sustainability Sam challenge
You don’t have to overhaul your entire kitchen this month.
Pick one thing to start today.
Clean out the freezer.
Plan meals around what you already have.
Try a “use it up” dinner.
Freeze those leftovers.
Finally figure out what that mysterious container in the back of the refrigerator actually contains.
Then try another.
The Save Food, Spend Less Challenge gives you more than 60 actions to choose from, so sign up and find strategies that fit your household instead of trying to achieve some mythical state of refrigerator perfection.
And remember:
The most sustainable food is often the food you already bought.
So before you head to the grocery store, take a peek in the fridge.
Your wallet—and that lonely half onion—will thank you.
Ready to become a stop-food-waste hero?
Join Hennepin County’s Save Food, Spend Less Challenge, running October 1–31. Learn more and register here.
Start with one simple step: eat the food you bought.
Radical? Maybe not.
Effective? Absolutely.
Sustainably,
Sam
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P.S. The Tangletown Neighborhood Association Environmental Committee hosted a Save the Food webinar this past spring with terrific tips and tricks for wasting less food. You can watch it here.