The trick-or-treaters were done for the evening and, wouldn’t you know it, we had more candy than we needed. A calculated surplus, for sure. While it might be sweet to have leftover peanut butter cups or popcorn balls to munch on, we don’t necessarily carry the same attitude into dealing with our food leftovers.
Two of five people say they despise leftovers. Strong word: despise. Reasons cited include the potential of leftovers becoming a mushy mess, along with the stigma of carrying around reusable containers.
The majority of us however eat leftovers. Even if it’s not willingly, most do since it stretches the food budget, produces less waste, and is better for the environment.
There’s great value behind each of these motivations. When purchased food goes uneaten it is like tossing money away. Yet that happens every day and over the course of the year it costs the average Canadian household $1,766.
Most of the food we don’t consume, either because it has gone bad or because it is not to our liking, ends up in the landfill. Each day we throw away more than one million apples, 2.4 million potatoes, one million cups of milk and 650,000 loaves of bread. Every day.
The resources required to produce and then deal with what gets thrown away is having an impact on our environment. Almost 40% of our food winds up in the landfill and it is generating greenhouse gases that far surpass commercial aviation.
There was a time when what wasn’t eaten at one meal would simply be served again at the next. But attitudes have gone back and forth over the decades. With the introduction of refrigerators into homes, food could last longer and leftovers were a sign of prestige because it meant you could afford a fridge. As these appliances became more commonplace leftovers were no longer a sign of wealth. The pendulum shifted amidst food scarcity and rations, making leftovers once again valuable. But as incomes rose and options for eating-out grew, the idea of leftovers was equated more with garbage than with food. In some socioeconomic groups a culture developed that simply tossed away what wasn’t consumed because it wasn’t seen as valuable. How truly sad. We are in another shift currently as people recognize that eating up what they buy is the best strategy against rising prices.
So what makes the best leftovers in people’s minds? One survey found that soup came in at number one, followed by meat, pizza, pasta and rice. The worst were eggs and sushi.
I love having leftovers in the fridge. Cooking once and eating twice is my kind of math so I love the days when we can heat up something we had earlier in the week. It’s why I was struck by a commentator complaining about being ‘burdened with leftovers’ following a weekend where she hosted children and grandchildren. Now she and her husband were faced with what she described as ‘nasty and horrible’ leftovers that needed disposing. She may have been exaggerating for comedic purposes for her audience, but describing food in such a manner when there is desperate food scarcity didn’t strike me as particularly funny.
Needs in our country are rising. A small church in Ontario that serves a weekly dinner has seen their numbers go from a few dozen to a few hundred. Some community programs in eastern Canada are reporting that former donors are now their clients. In Alberta, more than 200 seniors are accessing help from an agency that used to assist 12-16 people each day.
Foods Banks Canada released a report last week indicating more Canadians are using food banks than ever before. Need has increased 80% since 2019 and is being driven by a high level of requests among the working population. One in three food bank users are children and some food banks fear they are reaching a breaking point. All this in our country. The situation in too many places around the world is even more dire.
Today 783 million people face chronic hunger. More than 345 million people in 79 countries confront food insecurity and don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Imagine how life would change for them if they could pull out some leftovers to feed their family.
Some of us may have ambivalent feelings toward facing leftovers, but being able to pop the lids off containers to reveal the contents of previous meals reminds us we had enough to not only fill us up, but excess to put aside for another day.
Burdened with leftovers. Really? Blessed is far more accurate. Caring for the environment, stretching our food budget and maybe even freeing up a few more of those dollars to help others can be achieved by a fairly simple act. More of us need to start eating our leftovers. That’s my outlook.
