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Super Bowl Sunday: Managing Surplus

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I love events centered around food. I don’t love seeing a mismatch between the amount of food and people’s appetites. Usually there’s too much food, which leads to waste. 

This past weekend featured one of those eating events: the Super Bowl! My husband and I hosted a party, the first time entertaining in awhile. We were excited to cook from scratch, but also aware of how easy it is to overestimate.  The facts bounced around in my head:

  • At least a third of the 70M+ pounds of surplus food each year in the US occurs in homes.
  • The average each person spends on uneaten food each year is estimated at nearly $800.
  • Food decaying in landfills releases powerfully harmful methane.
  • A significant amount of upstream resources are lost — and animal protein’s environmental impact is especially acute.
    Source: 2025 ReFed US Food Waste Report

I did some rough calculations before shopping, and overestimated (note to self: remember to use this awesome tool that lets you count people with different appetites differently!). As the guest list grew, I worried about ensuring everyone was content with the options. 

Despite our best intentions, we did not nail execution. To our credit, activities and outings with the kids ate into time we could have spent planning. Our menu had too many items. We didn’t map out oven timing, and prep took longer than expected. People filled up or left early. We remembered to spent a little time chatting with our friends! By the end of the night, several dishes were never made, and we had extra food.

What did we do a pretty good job at? Mitigation.

Ideally, giving away leftovers was an option, if we knew people would consume them. Fortunately, unused extra pre-cooked meatballs stayed in the freezer. Containers of vegetarian chili were split between the freezer and the fridge for upcoming meals. I repurposed broccoli from the veggie platter into a steamed dinner side the next day. The 8 pounds (!) of marinated chicken wings that we never cooked went into bags in the freezer.  Steak intended for a crostini appetizer joined the freezer fun. 

Now we just need to have another party!

The experience gave me renewed appreciation for anyone who manages food production tightly–especially restaurant teams who do it meal after meal and day after day. 

Kudos to the hosts, chefs and restaurant operators who keep people happily fed without wasting too much food! 

One Year

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Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of my first blog post! Happy anniversary Make Haste Not Waste! Thank you to everyone who tunes in to hear/see what I’m up to.

Yesterday was also the day I heard a story on NPR about the National Resources Defense Council’s latest report on food waste.

I know I haven’t devoted much space yet to the issue of food waste on a national or global scale. It is a serious subject that involves the environment, economics, politics, social justice, and more. If you are tired of reading and want a quick overview in the form of video/infographics, watch this:

If you want more context, check out one of the NRDC’s extensive reports here, or their blog.

I made it my goal, starting last year, to reduce my contribution to the waste. While I haven’t yet started weighing my garbage and my compost (don’t count that out as a possibility! I’m waiting for Leanpath to make affordable home units), I can look at changes in my food spending.

I have been using a program for about 6 years now in which I try to track and categorize my spending. My husband used the same and we merged our tracking together when we married 3 years ago. Other factors are involved, of course, so I add the caveat here that this is not perfectly scientific:

Dates: January 1 – September 18  
  Grocery Expenditure Dining Expenditure
2011 X (Baseline) X (Baseline)
2012 X + 1% X + 10.3%
2013 X – 9% X – 1.9%

This drop occurred in the face of rising food prices: according to the USDA Economic Research Service, the Food Consumer Price Index increased 3.7% in 2011, 2.6% in 2012, and is predicted between 1.5 and 2.5% for 2013.

See? It pays to not waste!

Yesterday’s report addressed a specific issue of food labeling–the confusing “Best by” and “Sell by” dates that aren’t necessarily being used correctly, responsibly, or sensibly. Date labeling is almost completely unregulated, and “best by” or “use before” dates might simply indicate the manufacturer’s idea of peak freshness. The suggestion was that there be a clear, standardized system for consumers, more useful information, such as safe handling instructions, and transparency about methods for selecting dates.

I think about the progress that can be achieved in one year, in terms of increased awareness and policy change, and I’m not sure change is happening as quickly as it should. I applaud the NRDC for its efforts to break the problem down into parts. Imagine if the consumer started seeing a “Freeze by” date on all of their perishables–perhaps that would help shape a culture of planning and preserving. But these parts still need action and effort and advocacy. The UK did it: the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) started an initiative called Love Food Hate Waste (sound familiar?) and measured in 2011 a reduction in avoidable household food and drink waste of 18% since 2006/2007.

Change in the United States would probably require our politicians to take on these subjects–difficult, perhaps, when they are stuck fighting over the debt ceiling. Can things change? I sure hope so. And I know it is hugely challenging. But if you think about it, only in the past century or less has our food waste has become so rampant. Maybe it will take 100 years to get things under control!